Love Is Strange
by Keysaer Lachlanny
Summary: Ginny is in a bad way over a certain Potions Master - and he finds out in a 'very' embarrassing - albeit very unoriginal - way... ^_^ Plus, see what happens when she returns to Hogwarts four years later...*Chapter 14 Up*
1. Default Chapter

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Love Is Strange  
  
Author: Keysaer Lachlanny  
  
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Disclaimer: Don't own it, make no money from it – be happy.  
  
(A/N: Yes it's a Ginny/Snape – yes, it's completely unoriginal – if G/S doesn't appeal to you, don't read it!)  
  
Summary: This is a kind of funny – as in weird – fic about how Ginny falls for Severus Snape, and his reaction to her when he finds out – and how he finds out is probably the most unoriginal bit ever – but I tried really hard to keep Severus in character, and the emotions and situations real, and not cheesy. Yes he's 'older', and yes, she's 'young' – but give it a chance, it might grow on you. I think the title explains it all.  
  
It's an odd pairing, but it's nagged at me, and it's my first, so do be kind and please review!  
  
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1. Beautiful  
  
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Have you ever watched someone? No, I don't mean just looking at a person, simply staring and then moving on.  
  
No, what I'm talking about is just straight on watching a person – a person who just absolutely intrigues you, beyond anything or anyone else in your world.  
  
It's weird, the things you notice about a person when you watch them from day to day.  
  
Like how many different shades of black are in their silky hair, or how their skin isn't really pale and sallow, but creamy white like warm milk…how their eyes aren't flat and black, and cold, but endlessly deep and glinting, incredibly, sharply intelligent and hinting at hidden passions that take your very breath away…  
  
What am I thinking?  
  
All right, all right – I've obviously given myself away. It Professor Snape I'm talking about – wait, wait! Before you go getting the wrong idea, I don't have a crush on him – I really don't…  
  
Severus Snape. How could I have a crush on a guy with a name like that? Much less an 'old' guy with a name like that…no matter that he's indescribably sexy – in a weird way, of course…  
  
I'm watching him even now, you know. I'm supposed to be taking notes about some stupid potion and instead I'm practically talking to myself – talking to you, anyway, diary.  
  
It still seems crazy, 'me' writing in a diary after all that happened my first year here at Hogwarts. I still wince every time I hear the name 'Tom'. I guess I just got so used to writing my thoughts down…  
  
'He' is at the chalkboard again, scribbling something in his barely discernable handwriting. The spiky ends of his raven colored hair are brushing the high collar of his black robes, and I can feel those same strands brushing through my fingertips…  
  
God, he makes me ache.  
  
Did I really just write that?  
  
Okay. So I have a crush.  
  
On Professor Snape.  
  
It's no big deal…really, it's not.  
  
Oh, God, I have problems.  
  
It's not just a crush, either. I want to believe it is…but it's not.  
  
I'm seventeen years old – very nearly eighteen…I've had crushes – I know crushes - I had one on Harry Potter, my brother Ron's best friend, the wizard who went on to at last defeat Lord Voldemort, only last year…I've even had one on Draco Malfoy, of all people…I was fifteen…and thank God that one hit the high road…  
  
All I have to do is look at my teacher, and my whole chest hurts. I know it's more than a crush, because there's this feeling of hopelessness entwined with the hurt – you know, that feeling you get when you see something you desperately want, and know intuitively that you'll never get it? Sorry, you're a diary, you don't 'know' anything, do you? Except my deepest, darkest secrets…  
  
Well, I finally admitted it.  
  
Wow.  
  
I love my ill - tempered, grouchy, greasy – haired, much older Potions teacher.  
  
There is something seriously wrong with me.  
  
The world is ending – or I'm just insane - that must be why I keep looking at him and seeing our children in his eyes…God, that's lame…I'm not old enough to even 'think' about having children…I could almost laugh. Could you see what our children would look like?  
  
They'd be absolutely, ridiculously…beautiful. Oh, Lord…  
  
Damn…must go – he's giving me the evil eye. I smell a detention sentence in the air.  
  
I can only hope.  
  
Ugh.  
  
1 I really need help…  
  
***********  
  
"Miss Weasley!"  
  
Ginny jumped and accidentally dropped her quill. Her elbow jerked and she bumped her bottle of ink off the table and scrambled to catch it, only to watch in horror as it shattered chaotically on the ancient stone floor.  
  
The crash echoed in the suddenly silent room, and Ginny winced even before the professor opened his mouth, knowing already what was coming.  
  
"Ten points from Gryffindor, Weasley – and clean up that mess before you go – the rest of you are dismissed…and I suggest you read the homework, I'll be quizzing you on Chapters 18 through 24 on Monday!"  
  
A few brave souls dared a collective groan, as they filed from the classroom, eager to leave before he actually gave them written work.  
  
Ginny rubbed her eyes, her hands shaking, as she knelt to gather the books and parchment she'd also bumped off the desk. She swallowed hard as his shadow passed over her in the dim light, as he moved silently across the room, sending not so unpleasant chills down her spine.  
  
As she worked to clean up the glass and ink, she found herself listening to his breathing, which was low, and even. She could have used 'Reparo' for the glass, but instead deliberately took her time with her task, even though being around him made her unbelievably nervous and stupidly clumsy. It soon became so quiet in the classroom that once she almost fancied that she could even hear his heart beating.  
  
When Ginny knew she couldn't dawdle any longer, she tipped the glass into a trash bin and brushed her hands clean. She chanced a look through her long red curls at his desk, only to widen her eyes in surprise when she didn't see him there.  
  
She looked around the room, feeling disappointed when she couldn't spot him.  
  
He'd left without a word…she really should have been thankful…  
  
Ginny sighed and turned to retrieve her schoolbooks – only to walk right into the object of her thoughts.  
  
Her nose buried itself in his soft black robes, and her breasts brushed his lean abdomen as she accidentally stepped on his feet and lost her balance.  
  
"Oh!"  
  
She voiced the surprised exclamation as she fell against him, and she caught the surprisingly clean scent of…of…Oh, God, the dark, angry, black robed man smelled of pure sunshine. She was so lost…  
  
Large, strong, fine boned hands grasped her upper arms hard, and set her back on her feet effortlessly.  
  
Ginny brushed her bangs out of her eyes and found herself staring at his chest. She was so close she could make out the finely woven threads in the unrelieved black of his robes…he cleared his throat loudly, and crossed his arms, and she looked up – and up, until she was finally looking into his dark eyes, hiding as they were beneath his lowered black brows.  
  
Midnight strands of dark hair fell forward around them as he subtly shook his head. She watched his cruelly sensual looking lips purse in that achingly familiar manner he had, and observed them as they opened, in a sort of fascinated way…  
  
"You must be the most cloddish, thoughtless, intellectually devoid excuse for a student I've ever had the misfortune to have in my class..."  
  
Ginny blinked and stared at him. Oh, God – what had he just said? She hadn't been paying attention…  
  
Had his eyelashes always been that long?  
  
"- No wait – I believe that honor has already been taken by Neville Longbottom…but you're running a close second, my dear…"  
  
He'd just called her 'my dear'…she swallowed and dropped her gaze to the white collar encircling his throat. She needed to go away. Far away…  
  
"- You listening to me, Miss Weasley?"  
  
"Er, yes, sir."  
  
"Then perhaps you wouldn't mind repeating what I said about the effects of the bite of the Malaclaw during class today?"  
  
Ginny frowned at the sneer in his voice, and then searched her mind desperately. Nothing!  
  
"Um…I'm sorry, Professor. I d – don't remember." She crossed her fingers beneath her robe sleeve, for luck.  
  
It didn't work.  
  
He snorted, looming over her, reminding her just how short she was. And how alone they were – her legs trembled.  
  
"Obviously. It seems to me, you've been 'forgetting' an awful lot lately, Miss Weasley…you're grades have been slipping since the beginning of the year." He arched one brow and tossed his hair back, before looking down at her in his usual speculative manner.  
  
"I believe, Miss, that since you've wasted so much of my time of late, that you owe me at least one night of detention."  
  
Ginny bit her lower lip and could have sworn his eyes flickered down to it for the briefest moment before he narrowed his eyes and took a step toward her, making her step back reflexively.  
  
"I shall expect you at eight o'clock this evening, and in addition, you will re-read every chapter I've assigned in the past week, and write a report about each, none less than one length of parchment long, to be handed in no later than the end of class on Monday, understand?"  
  
She nodded dumbly and continued to stare up at him. Did he have to be so damn tall? She was getting a crick in her neck…  
  
"You are dismissed." He made a jerking motion with his head towards the door, and Ginny looked away from him reluctantly, absentmindedly soothing the lip she'd been biting with her tongue.  
  
She gathered her things, and made her way to the door. Pausing, she looked back at him, watching as he moved around his desk, and swept back his robes as he settled himself elegantly into his chair.  
  
What are you doing? She shrieked at herself. Move!  
  
"Yes, do you have something to say, Miss Weasley?" He snapped impatiently without looking up from the papers on his desk. "And if you do, allow me to warn you, I have no problem with taking extra points off for attitude."  
  
Ginny knew exactly what she wanted to say. But she didn't dare. Never in a million years would she dare.  
  
His dark head jerked toward her, his expression annoyed. "Well?"  
  
Her lips felt glued shut.  
  
"Well, don't stand there gawking, girl – spit it out! I haven't got all bloody night!"  
  
"I – I –"  
  
"What is it?" He fairly roared in exasperation.  
  
"I think you're…beautiful."  
  
Ginny's eyes flew wide open at the same time as his, and she clamped her damnable mouth shut and turned on her heel, intent on disappearing from the face of the earth.  
  
  
  
********  
  
Severus stared after the Weasley girl in slowly dawning horror.  
  
"I show up, I teach them – WHAT THE BLOODY HELL ELSE DO THEY WANT FROM ME?" He shouted this angrily, his lips curling back into a snarl.  
  
He slammed a fist onto his desk, sending papers flying every which way, and stood, pushing back from his seat, making the chair legs screech loudly on the stone floor.  
  
Severus began pacing, knotting his hands into a fist at the base of his lower back as he walked, feeling like a caged animal.  
  
He 'd never been the recipient of a student's misplaced crush before in his entire teaching career – hell, he'd been bloody lucky to get laid back in his own days as a student at Hogwarts…women just weren't attracted to him that often…of course his stand - offish manner and generally bad outlook on life surely hadn't helped, either…  
  
What was the idiot child thinking? Honestly, he was old enough to be her father – strike that, he'd known her father!  
  
He clenched his teeth and kicked a book on the floor out of his way – and then he realized, as it slid across the floor and struck the wall with a thud, that it belonged to Ginny Weasley.  
  
Severus took a deep breath, attempting to calm himself, and eyed the book with intense dislike. It was her notebook, the one she was always scribbling away in when she should have been damned well paying attention to him instead!  
  
He stalked over to the book, retrieved it, and flipped it open to see if she really had been bothering to take down notes – but it was obvious she hadn't – the pages were covered in flowery writing, in paragraphs about senseless, fluffy, female things…he was about to close the book when he saw his name written neatly in back ink.  
  
Unable to resist reading about the undoubtedly nasty things she had to say about him, he laid the book open on his desk and began to read, eager to find any excuse to give her a week's worth of detention for giving him a migraine…  
  
Ten minutes later, he carefully closed the book and pushed it to the far edge of his desk.  
  
He sat there, his usually pale cheeks having turned pink, looking at it as if it might come alive at any moment and bite him.  
  
Severus slowly lifted a hand to his suddenly aching head and clamped his eyes shut with a suffering groan.  
  
What the hell was he going to do?  
  
*******  
  
Ginny's heart stopped when she realized her 'diary' was missing.  
  
Of course she was in her last class of the day, Divination and couldn't go chasing after it…  
  
She choked back her panic and tried to concentrate on what Madam Trelawney was droning about, but it was impossible – God only knew who might get their hands on it!  
  
She shuddered, startled, when Trelawney suddenly jerked her head toward her from her contemplation of her 'crystal ball', her eyes huge through the glasses perched on her face.  
  
"I don't believe it!"  
  
Ginny stared at the woman with surprised eyes. "What?"  
  
After a moment, the older woman broke out into a totally uncharacteristic cackle of laughter and Ginny realized her classmates were staring at her.  
  
The woman waved her hands and tried desperately to stop laughing. "I-It's nothing, dear, nothing – I just –" she coughed and went off into gales of laughter again, and Ginny shook her head, watching helplessly.  
  
Thankfully, the woman had to dismiss them early, and Ginny shouldered her back pack, racing down into the dungeons at breakneck speed – she bumped into a rather surly looking Slitheryn boy who cursed after her, but she didn't dare slow down. If Snape had gotten his hands on that book, she might as well miss a step and break her neck on the stairs…  
  
She approached the door to his classroom quietly, trying to slow her ragged breathing…she cautiously stuck her head around the door, and closed her eyes in relief when she saw that the room was empty.  
  
She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw her diary laying on the edge of his desk.  
  
That was definitely not where she'd left it…  
  
Hell.  
  
She looked at the book longingly, her body humming with adrenaline…but she couldn't take it…he'd know it was missing…and if he had read it, he'd know that she knew he knew…  
  
Ginny mentally kicked herself and prayed he wouldn't look at it before she had a chance to retrieve it from him at detention.  
  
She made a mental note to take the point that fate was striving to make, and never write in a diary again.  
  
*******  
  
"Good evening, Miss Weasley…"  
  
Ginny crossed her arms over her chest, gripping the seams of her robes in her fists nervously. She avoided the potion's master's eyes as she stood before his desk, dry mouthed with fear…it wasn't that she was actually afraid of him…but rather, what he might say.  
  
She chanced a glance upwards and blanched at the sight of her book in his slim hands.  
  
"Professor – "  
  
"I suggest that you sit down and shut up, Miss Weasley…I have something to say to you, and I won't tolerate your sniveling interruptions."  
  
Stung, Ginny whirled and took a seat at the desk directly in front of him. She stared at the scuffed black boots and the snug fit of his black trousers around his calves before he slowly turned on his heel, and she was presented with the long, sweeping length of his trailing robe, which slithered along behind his tall, slender form before abruptly, he turned back on her again.  
  
She ducked her head and looked down at her hands eyeing one jagged fingernail absently. He almost seemed as out of sorts as she, if that was possible.  
  
His shadow passed over her again, and she realized he was pacing…she could hear the gentle glide of his robes as he prowled before the desk, and she could just picture the look on his face…  
  
Minutes passed in this fashion, the silence lulling her into a false sense of comfort before she felt the weight of his eyes on her again.  
  
He drew a deep breath, and when he spoke, finally, his voice was almost soft. His words were not.  
  
"Miss Weasley…I'm sure you've realized by now, that I've read the contents of your book…"  
  
Ginny felt her cheeks burn in humiliation, and she tried desperately to shut his voice out – she didn't want to hear anything he was about to say.  
  
"I won't apologize, for it, either. I've observed you time and again scratching away at this – this, nonsense, while you should have been taking notes…"  
  
She flinched as he slapped the book onto the desk before her.  
  
"But the question of your rather dubious note taking can be discussed at a later time…"  
  
Ginny felt her stomach lurch in panic as his hands came to rest flat on either side of her on the desk. He leaned down, and she felt his breath brush her bangs.  
  
"Do you mind telling me just what in bloody hell possessed you to write all of that?"  
  
Staring at the stark whiteness of his shirt cuffs barely visible beneath the sleeves of his robes, she could only shake her head.  
  
"Sweet Jesus!"  
  
Startled by his sudden, frustrated curse, Ginny looked up to watch him spin away from the desk, and stalk to the door.  
  
"Do your homework, Weasley – and then get out of my classroom. We'll talk further about this – matter - later."  
  
Confused, she stood and followed to hang out the doorway and watch him disappear down the torch lit corridor.  
  
The flame light shone on his glossy black locks, and she watched him fascinated as always, before he unexpectedly came to a halt at a corner at the end of the hall, his dark, quick eyes flickering back to catch her staring at him.  
  
Ginny's eyes flew wide, and he sneered at her, one dark brow arching insultingly – she spun around and went straight back to her desk to work on her homework, hoping to finish before he returned.  
  
  
  
********  
  
Severus watched the girl shrink at the force of his glare, and smiled with satisfaction when she disappeared back into his classroom.  
  
His smile faded, though, when he turned the corner and he collapsed back against the corridor wall, bringing his palms to his forehead.  
  
What had the swotty little brat done to him? He was shaking so badly he could barely stand.  
  
He forced himself to take a deep breath, and closed his eyes, only to see the fiery red curls on her head calling to his cool fingertips, and recall the comforting scent of warm vanilla that had teased his senses.  
  
His body drew tight, and he shook his head in denial angrily, running his fingers through his hair. He drew himself up, squared his shoulders and continued to walk out of the dungeons.  
  
Severus really had no idea where he was going, but he knew he didn't dare return to his classroom while the girl was still there…a thunderous frown creased his brow as he moved along, sending anyone unfortunate enough to be in his path rushing to get out of his way.  
  
He strode along, lost in thought, and found himself lost as to what to do, for what may have been the very first time in his entire life.  
  
There was certainly nothing there to love about him…despite the stupid, foolish words Ginny Weasley had scribbled in that damned troublesome book of hers…  
  
'Skin like warm milk, eyes dark with hidden passions' – right. As if anyone in their right mind would ever use those words to describe him…'silky hair'…bah!  
  
Severus growled and clenched his jaw. Why could things never be simple?  
  
He'd been stern, yes, cruel even at times, in his career…and very definitely unfair…he'd actually had a first year student refer to him as 'Bloody Lucifer himself', once…  
  
So what could the girl have possibly seen in him that made her fancy herself in 'love' with him? It was madness, complete and utter madness – it was beneath his notice, really…  
  
Why was he letting the scrap of a girl get to him so badly then?  
  
********  
  
"I see we're suffering from selective amnesia, today, Miss Weasley…did I not ask you to have those reports on my desk by the end of class today?"  
  
Ginny carefully stacked her books next to her backpack as the rest of the students in her class filed out. She unrolled a thick sheaf of parchment from it's ribbon and stepped up to his desk as the classroom emptied out.  
  
"I have them here, Professor."  
  
She kept her eyes down as he took the papers from her outstretched hands and thumbed through them.  
  
"Very well," he said, sounding reluctant. "You may go."  
  
Ginny moistened her lips, and forced herself to raise her head to look at him.  
  
"Professor…about last week…"  
  
"It's been forgotten, Miss Weasley…" he looked at her, his black eyes piercing in their intensity. "I suggest you do the same."  
  
"I- I don't want to forget," she dared to murmur, protesting.  
  
A look of irritation crossed his angular features. He fairly glared at her as he tossed his hair from his eyes and leaned across the desk towards her on his forearms.  
  
"Miss Weasley," he began, with the air of someone with sorely tried patience, "whatever it is you think you're feeling…it's not real. And I don't have time to sit here and explain it to you – go pour out your 'girlish heart' to McGonagall."  
  
With a snort of disgust, he dismissed her, and settled back into his chair, picking up his quill.  
  
Ginny stared at him, her eyes tearing with hurt. She clamped her trembling lips shut, and retrieved her things.  
  
Just before she left, she very pointedly stopped next to the trash bin near the door, and dropped in her 'diary'.  
  
"Good afternoon, sir," she said softly, and disappeared out the door.  
  
********  
  
The Commencement Ceremony was long over, and many of the students had left already – left Hogwarts for the last time.  
  
Ginny stood outside in the setting sunlight, near the entrance to the main hall, reliving her years at the old school. There had been bad times – really, really bad times – and times that had been amazingly, unbelievably good.  
  
She sighed heavily, her eyes tearing as she watched two of her closest friends at last wave their goodbyes and depart, pulling their bags behind them…it was really over, then. It was time to move on, and she felt lost – because there was nowhere else on the planet she'd rather be than at Hogwarts…  
  
Ginny swiped a tear from her eye with the sleeve of her robe – it didn't help – more just came tripping down her cheeks - and blinked when a white handkerchief was dangled before her nose.  
  
She felt a shadow move over her, and looked up, eyes widening as she saw the dark potions master looming over her.  
  
He shook his head when she didn't accept the handkerchief, and sighed moodily, muttering beneath his breath as one long finger tipped her chin up, and he began not so gently scrubbing her cheeks dry.  
  
Ginny found herself smiling up at him, and he abruptly dropped his hands away.  
  
"Have you quite gotten yourself under control now, Miss Weasley?" He tucked the handkerchief back into his robes and stood glaring down his crooked nose at her with his arms crossed.  
  
She shook her head at his surly manner, and briefly closed her eyes. "It's nice to know some things around here are never going to change."  
  
He looked at her from beneath is lashes and curved a brow. "You sound as if you aren't keen on leaving us, Miss Weasley."  
  
She sniffled, and pushed her hand through her thick fall of curls. "I'm not. I'm really not." She looked around at the lawns and castle walls, and shook her head. "This is home."  
  
"Miss Weasley –"  
  
"Please, Professor…can't you just once call me Ginny? Please?" She looked up at him appealingly and then rolled her eyes, and dropped her head. "I'm sorry…I - I should go. My family is waiting for me..."  
  
Ginny stepped down the front stairs, feeling his gaze on her back as she went. With every step she took, something in her felt as if it was ripping apart…she looked up at a single, twinkling star in the orange and purple twilight sky, and wished with all her heart that he would call after her, say her name, come after her, anything…  
  
But she reached the bottom of the stairs and heard nothing.  
  
Unable to help herself, she paused when her feet touched the gravel of the walkway, and slowly turned to tentatively look over her shoulder at him.  
  
He wasn't standing where she'd left him.  
  
Ginny felt any hope she had left slip away, and her face crumpled. She watched the spot where he'd been standing for a moment more…and then turned away, her throat constricting painfully as she fought the tears already burring her vision.  
  
"Ginny…"  
  
She gasped and put a hand over her heart as she again walked right into Professor Snape's chest.  
  
"I hate it when you do that," she snapped, and then, to her horror, heard a sob escape her throat.  
  
His harsh, troubled expression softened slightly, and he cursed roughly, pulling her into his arms.  
  
Crying for something she knew could never be, Ginny buried her face in his chest, and felt his heart beating rapidly against her cheek.  
  
She took a shuddering breath, and swallowed, curling trembling fingers in the fabric of his robes.  
  
They stood like that, leaning against each other, for long minutes, savoring the silence of the evening around them.  
  
Crickets began chirping as the sun went to sleep, and the moon rose high above.  
  
Ginny finally stirred and turned her head to look at their surroundings through sleepy eyes.  
  
Lightning bugs flashed bright yellow all over the lawns, and she smiled slightly, before tilting her head back to look up at him.  
  
He lifted his chin from where it rested on the top of her head, and watched her with dark, unsure eyes.  
  
"Did I ever tell you, you smell like sunshine?"  
  
At her quiet whisper, he narrowed his eyes down at her faintly, and shook his head. "You are a very strange girl. No. However, I do seem to recall you telling me I was 'beautiful'."  
  
"You are..."  
  
"May I suggest, that you get your eyesight checked, Miss Weasley?" He asked in a distinctly suffering tone.  
  
Before Ginny could answer, the man had dropped his arms, and turned, walking away, dissolving into a deep shadow cast across the lawn by the castle; leaving her alone in the velvety warmth of the night.  
  
"Aren't you even going to take points off for old times sake?" Ginny murmured with soft, sad, sarcasm before giving herself a shake and forcing herself to walk away across the lawns, swallowing against tears.  
  
*******  
  
(A/N: Please let me know if you'd like to see this continued, in a review. Thanks!!! -Key)  
  
  
  
2 


	2. 2 Homecoming

Disclaimer: Don't own it, would like to, but don't – as for the money making part – yeah, right…do you think I would actually unglue my rear from my chair if I were making any from this? ::huge grin::  
  
********  
  
(A/N: A million thanks to you reviewers, and your encouraging remarks – I was expecting nothing but flames for this! And I had a whole bag of fluffy marshmallows ready…thank God I don't have to torch 'em! Your opinions are noted, and appreciated!!!  
  
As for the continuation of the story – again, it's probably not the most original plot, but I'm trying to write it in an 'original' way – your opinions are still very welcome! The chapters will probably be a bit shorter than the first, depending on how much time I get to write – but they should be updated at least every other day. Thanks again. - Key)  
  
********  
  
2. Homecoming  
  
  
  
Four Years Later…  
  
  
  
Severus spent the day before the arrival of the students for the new term as he always did – shut away in his private rooms with a migraine and a bottle of Ogden's Old Fire Whiskey.  
  
This was why the knock that sounded on his chamber door that evening was both unwelcome and very irritating.  
  
He remained where he was, sprawled in his chair before the fire, not bothering to answer.  
  
"Severus?"  
  
He closed his eyes at the sound of the Headmaster's voice. He raised his glass to his lips and listened as the older man let himself in.  
  
There was a loud thud in the darkness, and Albus cursed – the dark haired man in the chair smiled slightly.  
  
"Must you always keep it so blasted gloomy in here, Severus?"  
  
Severus rolled his head lazily to look at white bearded wizard standing in the shadows a few feet away.  
  
"It suits me, don't you think?"  
  
Albus Dumbledore eyed the potions master with a critical eye. The younger man had discarded his ever-present severe black robes, and was wearing black trousers, boots, and a high collared white shirt that was open halfway down the front. From the bleary look in his black eyes, and the amount of spirits left in the bottle on the floor by his seat, he'd been in the chair for quiet some time.  
  
"I have come to retrieve you for dinner this evening, Severus."  
  
"You know I never attend the pre-term 'festivities', Albus," he murmured tiredly.  
  
"Ah, but this year is different, my friend," stated Dumbledore, laying a gnarled hand on his lean shoulder. "The new Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher has arrived – and she is very keen on meeting you, I may add."  
  
"She?" Severus snorted in disgust. "I get thrown over for that position for the – Jesus, I've lost count of how many years it's been…and you're telling me it's a woman? On top of that, you want me to waste my last evening of peace for the next ten months on the joy of greeting her, which I am loathe to do, by the way?" He continued to stare moodily into the fireplace as a sneer curled his lips.  
  
"It would be remiss of you not to greet a fellow colleague," Albus countered softly.  
  
"She won't last the year, Albus, mark my words." He set his glass aside impatiently.  
  
"Oh, I don't think so…I believe she may surprise everyone. She's a rather hardy sort," the headmaster said with a merry twinkle in his blue eyes.  
  
"You mean she's a heavy set matron with the makings of a prize winning mustache," Severus muttered, rising from his chair with obvious reluctance. He winced as his joints cracked loudly, and he paused, rubbed his temples briefly before drawing on his robes and buttoning his shirt with swift, practiced motions.  
  
He gave his bottle of whiskey a mournful last glance before following Dumbledore from the shadowed, familiar comfort of his rooms.  
  
**********  
  
"Why Severus, how kind of you to join us," Professor McGonagall murmured as he took his seat at the teacher's table near her.  
  
He looked through his disheveled, stringy black hair and noted her pinched expression. "Something wrong, Minerva?"  
  
"Not at all…have you met her yet?"  
  
He paused in the act of pouring a glass of wine, and looked at the older woman out of the corner of his eye.  
  
"Unfortunately, no, I haven't had that purportedly great honor as of yet…" he muttered with thinly veiled sarcasm. "Have you?"  
  
Minerva smiled tightly. "As a matter of fact, no…but I do know her name – "  
  
"Minerva, may I have a word?" Albus appeared beside the professor's chair with an unusually grave look.  
  
"Of course, Albus." The witch removed her napkin from her lap, and stood.  
  
Severus watched the pair go with narrowed eyes, his brow arched suspiciously.  
  
He looked around the nearly empty great hall, his sharp, quick gaze taking in everything – including the billowing black robes of a young woman exiting through the doors at the opposite end of the room.  
  
He stood up with such haste that his chair screeched behind him, and several startled stares were sent his way from along the table.  
  
Ignoring the unwanted attention, he folded his arms across his chest, and stepped down from the raised dais the long table was set upon to stalk down the long aisle after the girl.  
  
He broke out into the hall looking left and right, a thunderous frown on his pale features.  
  
"Stop!"  
  
The slight figure in black halted several feet away, and he saw her back stiffen in the dim light of the hall.  
  
Severus took slow, deliberate steps, approaching the girl with rising ire.  
  
"What do you think you're doing here, Miss? How did you get in here? The students are not due to arrive until tomorrow…"  
  
As he closed the short distance between them, he noticed that the girl's hair was a dark, flame red, and something long forgotten stirred within the icy depths of his chest.  
  
The girl turned, slowly…and he felt his cold lump of a heart give a wicked, painful thud.  
  
Ginny Weasley's fair, slightly freckled face turned up to meet his with a slight smile.  
  
"Hello, Professor."  
  
*********  
  
Professor Virginia Weasley stood before her old teacher with a calm outward countenance that came from years of practice and experience – but inside she was quaking.  
  
She'd seen a lot in the past four years – she'd come face to face with vampires, werewolves, and innumerable other dark, dangerous creatures in her travels, and yet the sight of Severus Snape standing before her with a scowl as dark as any she could recall, in his familiar black robes, made her feel like that naïve seventeen year old girl all over again.  
  
Her eyes moved over his face, noting the fact that he hadn't changed a bit – the lines around his cruelly sensual mouth and glittering black eyes hadn't deepened or extended like she'd thought they would. His raven colored hair was the exact same length, and fell across his furrowed brow in the exact same manner.  
  
She crossed her arms over her chest and strived to look as disinterested as possible, as if her heart wasn't truly racing madly in her chest with his name tattooed across it.  
  
"I imagine you're rather surprised to see me, here," said Ginny at last, rather coolly.  
  
"I don't think surprised is quite the word I'd use, Miss Weasley," he snapped in dour tones.  
  
She felt her hackles rise as his dark eyes raked her, blistering in their intensity. "It's actually 'Professor' Weasley, now, if you don't mind," she bit out just as harshly.  
  
She had the satisfaction of seeing his dark brows rise in surprise before sudden understanding lit his eyes and they drew downwards again.  
  
" 'Professor' is it?" He looked at her skeptically. "I don't suppose you're the one Albus had been blathering on about…" he looked her over once again, and shook his head, obviously finding her lacking.  
  
" 'You' are going to teach the Defense Against The Dark Arts class?"  
  
Ginny frowned, arching her brow. "I may be young, but I assure you, Professor, I know what I'm doing."  
  
"Actions speak louder than words," he drawled acidly, before pursing his lips slightly and raising one loosely fisted hand to rest against his chest in a too familiar pose she'd seen a thousand times.  
  
Nostalgia and memories of unrequited love overcame her self – righteous anger, and she longed to lean her head against that chest again, and never leave the circle of his arms...  
  
"Weren't you going to dinner?"  
  
His abrupt question broke her from her girlish thoughts, and she swallowed, before meeting his eyes steadily.  
  
"I'm sorry, Professor, but I seem to have lost my appetite all of a sudden."  
  
He scowled at her. "I believe, 'Virginia', that since we are now colleagues," he spat the word as if it were distasteful to him, "you may call me Severus…"  
  
Ginny wrinkled her nose. "I really dislike being called Virginia…call me Ginny, please."  
  
"I can't call you that – it's a – a 'pet' name," he muttered in disgust. "'Virginia' is a much more suitable name for a woman of your station."  
  
"In that case, you won't mind my calling you Snape – I always thought your first name was a bit of a mouthful," she countered blithely, her tone even and controlled.  
  
Snape raised his chin sharply and drew in a quick breath suddenly, and Ginny recognized the signs of his rising temper from her days as his student.  
  
"I'll see you at breakfast, Professor…Snape. It was good speaking with you again." She turned before the smile tugging at the corner of her lips could give her away, and forced herself to walk at a maddeningly sedate pace down the dimly lit corridor.  
  
*********  
  
Severus stared after the girl with something burning in his chest that he couldn't begin to interpret. He felt angry with her…but also strangely protective of her.  
  
There'd been things he'd noticed, things that had changed about her that he hadn't seen in his first glimpse of her.  
  
She hadn't been lying a bit when she'd said she'd known what she was doing, he didn't doubt that. The experiences she'd had with the darker side of the world were written all over her lovely little face – and proven in the barely noticeable scar bisecting one of her finely arched brows.  
  
So why had he given her such a hard time of it, belittling her obviously hard earned title and insulting her abilities?  
  
Severus rubbed his temple and turned back the way he'd come, careful to avoid the great hall at all costs – the last thing he needed to hear was the glowing qualifications of "'Professor' Weasley…"  
  
*********  
  
To Be Continued… 


	3. 3 Lost Time

**********  
  
Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me. :D  
  
  
  
**********  
  
(A/N: Wow, more reviews…thanks everyone! Warm fuzzy feelings abound – but not too many, wouldn't want them spilling over onto our dear grouchy potions master, would we? :grin::  
  
Anyway, I wanted to point out, the creatures and such I mention in this chapter come from J.K. Rowling's 'Fantastic Beasts And Where To find Them'.  
  
Again, many thanks to those of you who have reviewed – thank you for the interest and taking the time to let me know your thoughts.  
  
- Key)  
  
**********  
  
3. Lost Time  
  
Ginny moved through her dimly lit classroom, pausing to look around the great stone pillars with a critical eye – she used her hip to scoot a few desks this way and that, making sure that all of them would be in full sight from her own desk.  
  
The students would be arriving to begin the new term within a few hours, and she was trying to keep herself busy until then – she didn't really feel like admitting to herself that she was simply avoiding Snape. Which was what really got to her - it had been along time since she'd ever felt intimidated by anyone or anything…  
  
"Settling in, Ginny?"  
  
She looked up with warm brown eyes as she heard Albus Dumbledore speak from behind her.  
  
"Hello, Professor."  
  
The older man moved forward, his hands clasped at the waist of his elaborate robes. "Remember, do call me Albus," he insisted.  
  
"Of course…you'll have to forgive me – I'm still getting used to referring to Professor McGonagall as 'Minerva'." Ginny smiled as she approached him.  
  
Heartfelt gratitude again filled her as she looked into the kindly Headmaster's light blue eyes. This was the man behind the whole reason she'd been able to return home to Hogwarts – if he hadn't offered her the position, she'd have been stuck patrolling and protecting certain areas in frigid northern Europe against particularly troublesome Red Cap's again that winter season – it was a lonely, dangerous, if not tedious job, at best.  
  
"Is everything all right? With Professor Snape, I mean…he didn't seem to be too terribly happy with my sudden reappearance."  
  
Albus smiled. "I think you can recall, Ginny, that Severus does not seem to be too terribly happy with anything at all."  
  
Ginny linked her hands together behind her back and bit back a grin. He was completely right, of course – Severus Snape's face would crack if he ever attempted to move the corners of his lips into an upward position.  
  
"I'd like to thank you again, sir, for taking me on…I feel as if I've finally returned 'home'," she said gratefully, brushing a strand of red hair behind her ear.  
  
"I am the one who should be doing the thanking…I believe the students will appreciate your youth and experience…"  
  
"Well, if there's one thing I have, it's experience – "  
  
"That, I believe, is a strongly debatable issue," came a cool, deep, well- known voice from the doorway.  
  
Ginny turned her head sharply to meet the thinly veiled insult with an equally cool glare. "Good evening, Snape – I trust you've had a 'productive' day…" she didn't need to mention that she'd smelled fire whiskey all over him in the corridor the evening before.  
  
It wasn't hard to tell that even with a sobering charm, the man was still suffering the after – effects of tying a rather large one on.  
  
The tall, dark robed man stiffened, narrowing his eyes, and stepped into her classroom, looking at her haughtily down his long nose. He inclined his head slightly as he acknowledged Dumbledore, but kept his shiny black eyes on hers.  
  
The same familiar old silvery shiver dusted along her spine as she looked upon his brutally handsome visage, steeling herself against the empathy she felt at the ashen shade the skin of his face had taken on, and the well hidden shadows of discomfort in his eyes.  
  
Severus Snape had long since been an adult – he had only himself to blame if he had over – indulged.  
  
"I've come to inform you, 'Virginia', that Hagrid has received the 'package' you had sent ahead."  
  
Ginny held back a scowl at his exaggerated use of her name, and smiled sweetly. "How 'kind' of you, Snape…perhaps you would care to accompany me out onto the grounds to see to it? I believe you might find it incredibly useful."  
  
"How so?" He asked suspiciously  
  
"Have you ever had the opportunity to examine a Living Shroud?"  
  
"You captured a Lethifold?" He asked faintly.  
  
"It wasn't terribly difficult, really, though I found it near impossible to summon a decent patronus – "  
  
"Albus, are you hearing this?" Severus snapped in furious disbelief, whirling on the silent headmaster. "This – this, 'girl', has brought a Lethifold onto the school grounds! A known, classified wizard killer, only feet away from hundreds of unsuspecting children!"  
  
Ginny crossed her arms, and leaned back against a desk. "I never said it was 'alive'," she pointed out calmly. "Unfortunately it did not survive the encounter – Ron always did say I was positively lethal when it came to someone – or, something - disturbing my sleep."  
  
Albus hid a chuckle in a sudden loud cough, and stood to place a reassuring hand on Severus's shoulder. "I don't think you have to worry about the great Professor Weasley, Severus. She 'is' a member of the Dark Force Defense League, you know, and has been working these past years for both the Beast and Being Division's of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. She is very well known for her work involving research on dark creatures – didn't you read the memo I sent out yesterday?"  
  
Ginny hid a grin with great difficulty, as Severus's eyes widened slightly.  
  
"I received both Albus's and the Ministry's permission to study the Lethifold remains here at the school, Professor," she stated straight – faced. "I had thought that perhaps you might be interested in testing the material for possible potions uses."  
  
'Yes, do go on with Ginny, Severus – there is still plenty of time before the student's arrive…" Albus moved to the door, his eyes catching Ginny's in a brief wink. "I had the opportunity to look on it before I came – it's positively ghastly."  
  
Ginny watched after the Headmaster with a dry smile, and looked back at Severus to gauge his reaction to Albus's words.  
  
**************  
  
Ginny Weasley had a Lethifold in her possession.  
  
He was surprised, which he really shouldn't have been, considering what she'd put him through in her Seventh year at Hogwarts.  
  
Severus looked at her, expecting to see a smug, gloating expression upon her face, but she was simply watching him, in a manner that reminded him uncomfortably of those days after he'd discovered the contents of her diary…  
  
He resisted the urge to raise his hand to his dully-throbbing temple and pressed his lips into a thin line.  
  
"Well? We haven't got all night – let's go and have a look at this creature of yours," he snapped, drawing his robes tightly against himself in what he recognized too late as being a purely defensive manner.  
  
Ginny dropped her warm brown eyes and moved to a cabinet on the wall, withdrawing a pair of dragon hide gloves. She cast him a considering glance over her shoulder, and removed another, larger pair as well.  
  
"We'll need these," she murmured needlessly as she walked towards the door, not bothering to wait for him.  
  
Severus found his gaze dropping to her slim, shapely hips, where the straggling tendrils of her scarlet hair brushed gently as she moved, and he caught himself with an impatient growl, giving his aching head a slow shake.  
  
It was going to be a long year. A very, long year…  
  
*************  
  
"Have you finally accepted the fact that I'm here to stay?"  
  
Severus looked over at the girl at her softly voiced question, as they returned to the castle after seeing to the Lethifold specimen.  
  
He paused on the dark, grassy slope surrounding the school, and set his jaw.  
  
"My opinion on the matter of you teaching here is probably best left unspoken," he said with a blunt finality.  
  
Ginny stopped a few feet ahead of him and turned to face him, her face shadowed in lacey patterns by the tree branches swaying slightly overhead.  
  
"You never have forgiven me, have you…"  
  
The solemn, gentle remark made his heart jump painfully in his chest again. "Forgiven you for what?"  
  
"Making you feel something you didn't want to."  
  
Severus was torn suddenly between simply walking away, and blasting her to hell and back for her infuriating presumptuousness.  
  
"I have no earthly idea of what you are blathering about, Weasley," he said icily, curling his hands into frustrated fists. Why did she have to go and bring his temporary lack of control into the light? Couldn't she see that as far as he was concerned, it had never happened?  
  
"It's all right…I just wanted to let you know, I missed you. All the time I was gone, I thought about you. I wondered if you were well…"  
  
Severus found himself taking a humiliatingly hasty step back as she approached him.  
  
"I remember, there was this time I was cornered in some ruins by – well, it doesn't really matter what they were, only that there were an awful bloody lot of them…anyway, I thought that was it for me, I thought it was over…and you know what? I thought of you. I was standing there, facing certain death, and I thought, 'What would Professor Snape do, if he were here, right now?'"  
  
Severus swallowed, his shirt collar suddenly feeling far too tight.  
  
"You saved my life, in a sense, you know…you kept me from feeling completely alone in the world on many a night, whenever I found myself in a foreign place, a stranger in a strange land, as it were."  
  
"I made it through a lot of difficult, impossible situations thanks to the memory of that sharp tongue of yours, Severus," she murmured, moving forward again slowly, looking so fragile and ethereal in the moonlight that for a moment he doubted his eyesight.  
  
"I made it because I knew that if I didn't, I'd never get to see you again…or get the opportunity to do this."  
  
He stood as if frozen, as her tiny warm hand moved up to touch his cool cheek, and her eyes drifted shut as she braced herself against his chest and stood on tiptoe to brush her lips against his…  
  
Severus stepped away from her after the brief contact, pasting a disapproving, fierce frown onto his face. " What exactly is going on in that tiny brain of yours? What do you think you are doing?"  
  
"Making up for lost time," she said carelessly.  
  
"It's been years, you couldn't possibly still have a 'crush' on me…I find the very idea patently ridiculous!" Snape searched for something devastating to say, but was distracted by the soft, slightly out of focus appearance of her eyes as they stared up at him.  
  
Ginny pressed her fingertips to her lips, and stared up at him with a bittersweet smile. "I probably shouldn't be telling you any of this…it no doubt undermines my abilities to teach in your eyes even further…but I have to say, if my number should be called tomorrow, I could almost die happy."  
  
He found himself staring at her in slack – jawed amazement, and then stalked past her, up the slope to the castle, snarling incoherently.  
  
"Did I say anything about it still being a 'crush' after all, Snape?" He heard her call softly from behind him. "I believe 'you' were the one to give my feelings that particular label..."  
  
He ignored her, walking against the cool fall breeze that had sprung up with unusually warm cheeks.  
  
***********  
  
Ginny cursed herself as she watched Severus stride determinedly away from her, his black robes rippling in the cold night wind with an ominous finality.  
  
What had come over her, to make her go on like that in front of him? He'd probably never speak a word to her again, unless it was absolutely necessary…  
  
She touched her still tingling lips again, an unwilling smile appearing.  
  
The man had felt just as much as she had when she'd kissed him, she knew it, and he was a fool if he thought she was just going to forget about it, as he himself seemed so set on doing…  
  
If only she weren't still so unnerved by his very presence.  
  
Ginny sighed and started back up the grassy slope just as the first students began arriving with their excited, noisy racket.  
  
**********  
  
TBC 


	4. 4 The Notorious Snape Impersonation

Disclaimer: Nope, it's not mine!  
  
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A/N:: I've borrowed movie quotes! ::laughs evilly:: You'll know where…thanks for the reviews everyone!  
  
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4. The Notorious Snape Impersonation  
  
******************  
  
Ginny slipped through a side entrance into the back of the great hall, arriving just in time to see McGonagall leading the first years up the main aisle.  
  
She found herself seated on one of the low green velvet covered chairs behind the teacher's table – it was the last empty seat, and was located on Snape's left hand side.  
  
Ginny sat down hastily and busily arranged her robes around herself, trying to ignore the weight of his frigid black gaze.  
  
Once the sorting ceremony was over, she watched with a mixture of excitement and extreme nervousness as Dumbledore rose to make the start of term announcements.  
  
The headmaster rose, the dark fabric of his heavily brocaded robes shining richly in the light of the hundreds of candles floating overhead. He looked out over the crowd of black robed students with warm, faded blue eyes behind his half – moon spectacles.  
  
"First of all, I'd like to start by saying, that the forbidden forest is off limits to 'all' students. As usual, there will be no use of magic in the halls allowed. Madam Hooch has requested that all students interested in trying out for their House Quidditch team sign up for tryouts within the next two weeks. The Dueling Club has also been resurrected, upon the request of our new Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher, Professor Weasley…you may see her for more information. I hope that all of you will do your best to make her feel welcome. That is all. Let the feast begin."  
  
Ginny watched the food appear on the golden platters, still impressed by the sight, but found herself unable to reach for anything – her appetite had all but disappeared, knowing Severus was only inches away from her.  
  
Shifting her feet restlessly, she bumped her knee against his leg and her eyes flew up to meet his.  
  
His black brows drew downwards over the bridge of his nose, as he gave her cold, dismissive glance.  
  
Ginny frowned at him in irritation as he swept his robes pointedly away from her, and picked up his glass of red wine in one graceful motion.  
  
"Not eating, Professor?" She murmured as she picked up her golden utensils, determined to eat something.  
  
"Perhaps you prefer to drink your dinner?"  
  
Severus turned his head to shoot a black look her way, and suddenly the bite of moist, succulent turkey in her mouth tasted about as flavorful as sawdust.  
  
"My drinking habits are certainly none of your business, Virginia." He said matter of factly. "Although, the thought of sitting next to you every morning and evening, is quite enough drive any sane man to drink," he added disdainfully as he lifted his glass again.  
  
Feeling horribly insulted, Ginny narrowed her eyes on him.  
  
He slid her a very quick glance from the corner of his eye. "Stop looking at me, you silly girl,"  
  
The cool, authoritative snap made her feel as if she were sitting in his class again, both fascinated and terrified by him, and she dropped her eyes to her plate out of long forgotten habit.  
  
Ginny cursed herself, almost immediately.  
  
She was no girl, barely out of pigtails and patent leather buckle shoes. How dare the man belittle her!  
  
"Haven't you anything to say about my heading the Dueling Club? I'd have thought you'd have gotten 'round to protesting about that long before now." She tapped her fingertips on the tabletop and then said sweetly, "Oh, but you didn't read Dumbledore's memo, I'd forgotten…"  
  
For a long moment, it seemed as if he might ignore her…and then he turned toward her, very slowly, and deliberately resting his forearm across the edge of the table, his fist clenching, Fierce black eyes bored into her, and it took a great bit of effort and ingrained stubbornness on her part not to look away.  
  
"I don't need to voice my protests about the Dueling Club, Professor Weasley, I believe they are already quite apparent – I had the opportunity to speak with Albus just before the feast, and he has already informed me of the matter. I, of course, questioned the wiseness of his decision to let one as young, and possessed of such an obvious, questionable temperament, as you, teach the students how to duel properly."  
  
"Of course," Ginny said quietly, with a slightly cynical edge to her words.  
  
He narrowed his eyes on her momentarily before continuing.  
  
"Therefore, he has agreed that I shall be present at each lesson and meeting to keep things under control."  
  
Ginny laughed. "By seeing to it that I teach them only Disarming Charms?" She shook her head, eyeing etching of the Hogwarts shield on her glass absently. "They're going to need to be offensive as well as defensive, Snape. You know that as well as I do."  
  
She met his hard look with a firm stare of her own. "One never can tell what kind of evil is going to rear its ugly head…"  
  
Severus's pale countenance took on a look of cold fury, and he nodded to her with an irritable jerk of his head, before standing up and walking away.  
  
Ginny sighed, and looked to her right, to see Professor McGonagall watching her expressionlessly.  
  
****************  
  
Ginny looked up from her desk with an odd, nervous tingle in her stomach as she watched her first class arrive the next morning. She smoothed her full black robes, and adjusted the simple but elegant black velvet hat atop her loose red curls with a fretful hand.  
  
She waited until the seventh year students were all seated, and then grinned, getting up and walking around to the front of the desk to lean against it.  
  
"Good morning, class – I believe Professor Dumbledore has already introduced me – I am Professor Weasley."  
  
She was answered with a chorus of enthusiastic good mornings, and she nodded, looking around the filled up room.  
  
"So – what exactly do you all expect to learn in this class?"  
  
Several frowns greeted her question.  
  
"Well, that's obvious, isn't it, Professor?" One intelligent looking boy with brown hair and gray eyes said after raising his hand. "I mean, you'll just teach us what all the others have the past few years – "  
  
"No, I won't." Ginny pushed herself up to sit on the edge of her massive desk, and began swinging her legs idly. "You lot can forget everything you were taught – I'm the teacher now, and we're going to begin all over again."  
  
She ignored the groans of the class and shook her head, still smiling. "Don't worry, I never have been much one for written homework and all that nonsense," she paused as several cheers erupted from the class. "But – I do believe in hard work. There'll be no easy rides in this class. I expect myself to give one hundred percent in my work, and so I also expect it from you."  
  
She stood to pace before the large desk, her hands clasped behind her. The small window behind her glowed with early morning sunlight, and its warmth felt soothing as she felt it spill across her back.  
  
"I'll get a few things out of our way right now. Yes, I am young – I'm twenty, to be exact…I graduated from Hogwarts four years ago. But, looks can be deceiving, as the saying goes – I know more about the dark side of this world than I ever wanted to, and I want to see that you are as experienced as you can possibly be before we send you out in it." Ginny stopped, and looked out over her wide - eyed class with a serious expression.  
  
"I've always looked on the Defense Against the Dark Arts class as being a mixture of Potions, Charms, Transfigurations, and a few others – and I've always thought that only one teacher here at Hogwarts ever successfully taught all of these in this class – and that was Professor Remus Lupin. I had the opportunity to study with him for several months a few years back, and I'll be passing along some of his knowledge to you, in a manner that does him justice I hope."  
  
" I'll be teaching you the proper way to defend yourselves against any number of creatures, spirits, and beings – I'll also be teaching you simple – and not so simple –incantations, which will come in handy should you find yourself stranded in an isolated place, on a lonely night with only the moon to guide you."  
  
"Don't take your wand for granted, my friends – it is entirely too possible that one day you lose it – or damage it, and it is also possible to apparate into a place from which you cannot disapparate." She smiled slightly at the speculative and scared looks she received.  
  
"It's true, all that and more – believe me, I've been there, and done that."  
  
"Now…I'll take questions before we begin, if anyone has any."  
  
A dozen hands promptly flew up in the air.  
  
"Yes?" She motioned to one girl who reminded her dearly of Hermione Granger.  
  
"Is it true, Professor – did you really know Harry Potter? Is your brother really Ron Weasley?"  
  
Ginny grinned again, crossing her arms and shaking her head. How many more times would she be asked that particular question throughout the day?  
  
"Yes, I really knew Harry Potter – I still see him on holidays, in fact – and let me let you in on a little secret – he's just as human as you or I. He eats junk food, he's grouchy in the mornings, and he has a tendency to be overly dramatic and temperamental – and yes, Ron is my older brother. I'd say the same for him, but let's just say his sudden popularity as the Cannon's Keeper has gone to his head, and he can't get past the clouds to see any of us 'mortals' down here on earth," said Ginny wryly.  
  
"Wicked," breathed a boy, obviously impressed, at a front desk.  
  
"Professor," called a boy from the back, "I heard from my father that you were involved in the attack on Azkaban two years ago, when the Dementor's rebelled and the Ministry had to act."  
  
Ginny felt her grin drop, and she nodded very slowly. "Yes, yes I was."  
  
"It must have been horrible," whispered another, pale faced.  
  
"It was," Ginny agreed, and then called on another student  
  
"Professor, my oldest brother is Justin Finch – Fletchley – he said he worked with you in Hungary last fall…"  
  
Ginny frowned. "That's right…"  
  
"Well, he told me that, er…you do a rather great impression of Professor Snape."  
  
Every student in the room either gasped or snorted in laughter.  
  
"Oh, God," Ginny put a hand over her eyes and sighed. After a moment of giving herself a sound mental thrashing, she looked at the class with a rueful smile.  
  
"It seems my reputation has preceded me again."  
  
"Won't you show it to us, Professor?" asked the boy eagerly.  
  
"Yes, show us!"  
  
"Please Professor!"  
  
Ginny shook her head. "I can't – I mean, I work with the man, now – it was different then – "  
  
"Oh, come on – we won't tell anyone!" exclaimed Justin's brother.  
  
"Yeah, please Professor? You know what he's like – he taught you, didn't he?"  
  
Wheedling voices wore her down. Ginny sighed again, and bit her lip, deliberating.  
  
"Oh, all right – just as long as none of you say anything…" she looked at them with a considering narrowing of the eyes, and then walked down the floor to the door.  
  
The students waited with wide grins as she threw open the classroom door, and stalked in with a dark scowl.  
  
She stepped back up to her desk, and crossed her arms, glaring at them. Deepening her voice slightly, she drawled slowly, the speech Snape had given in her first year.  
  
"There will be no foolish wand waving, or silly incantations in this class." She ignored the slowly building laughter of her students and prowled the floor before her desk, barely holding back a grin. "As such, I don't expect many of you to appreciate the subtle science and exact art that is potion making. However…" she paused, and eyed them each in turn, "- for those select few, who possess the pre – disposition…I can teach you how to bewitch the mind, and ensnare the senses. I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even put a stopper in death." This last was said so dramatically, that half of the kids were tearing up, clutching their aching stomachs.  
  
She flipped back her robe sleeves, and snapped. "Pay attention! Just what, may I ask, are you laughing at?"  
  
The class was laughing hysterically.  
  
"Ten points from Gryffindor for your cheek," she grumbled, only to catch herself grinning. Ginny finally gave up, and bent over slightly, giggling.  
  
"That was brilliant!" Justin's brother howled.  
  
She brushed a strand of her red hair from her eyes and cleared her throat, trying to look stern. "Now, now, come on – we shouldn't be poking fun at Professor Snape – "  
  
"Could you imagine what the man would do if he found out?" A girl gasped between chuckles.  
  
"Really – we'd all have detention for a month…"  
  
"Or worse, he'd take points – "  
  
"Maybe he'd curse us – he certainly seems the sort!"  
  
"Now, class –" Ginny began…  
  
"No, maybe he'd have Filch lock us up in the dungeons somewhere – leave us hanging by our thumbs-"  
  
"Or maybe, he'd be wondering which of the four is worse," came a chilly voice from the doorway.  
  
Flame cheeked, Ginny bit her cheek as she looked up to see Severus standing just inside the classroom.  
  
Twenty pairs of wide eyes turned to gape first at the Potions master, and then at her.  
  
Severus's lips curled slightly as he stared at her across the classroom.  
  
"A word, Professor," he drawled in a deceptively quiet tone.  
  
She tossed back her fiery mane of hair and cleared her throat again. "Er…take out parchment and quills – I want you all to answer the questions up here on the blackboard, so I can get a feel of what level you all are at – I'll return shortly."  
  
Ginny walked to the door with a swish of her black robes, and closed it behind her.  
  
"So…that is what you are so famous for, 'Professor' – entertaining children with a disparaging impersonation of yours truly?"  
  
Turning to face him with a sigh, she looked up at him with a shrug.  
  
"Don't act so offended, Snape – it's just something I did one night when I was lonely – I told you I missed you while I was gone, didn't I?"  
  
He sneered at her.  
  
"Must you keep on in this vein, Virginia? It's becoming rather tiresome…"  
  
"What exactly did you want to speak to me about, Snape?"  
  
"I didn't…I was passing by when I heard your show of talent."  
  
"And you thought you'd stop by and properly petrify the students," she commented evenly.  
  
"You were mocking me!" He suddenly exploded.  
  
Ginny felt her knees weaken, but she didn't back away. "I don't understand…Severus, why do you persist in making them absolutely terrified of you? Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't love you if you weren't who you are, but a teacher is supposed to be a mentor of sorts – "  
  
He backed her against the hall wall in one long, threatening stride, bending low over her with black eyes narrowed into menacing slits.  
  
"Do you know what kind of people need mentors, Ginny? People who can't think for themselves!" he hissed ferociously.  
  
Ginny stared up at him in surprise.  
  
He took a deep breath, and she watched him take a step back. The way he straightened his robes brought to mind a white and black plumed mockingbird soothing it's ruffled feathers.  
  
"I'll see you this evening at dinner, Professor," he managed in a soft snarl as he pushed his disheveled hair from his sight. "And I may recommend not attempting to impersonate Professor McGonagall, next? Minerva is rather paranoid about such things."  
  
She bit her lip, and looked away.  
  
He cursed and caught her chin in his fingers, making her look up at him again.  
  
"Don't look like that."  
  
"L – like what?"  
  
"Like I've hurt your feelings." He frowned as he searched her eyes, and then stepped back from her quickly, snapping at her again. "This isn't one of your adventures, Ginny – I'm not one of your doubtless many, love struck fans …I won't follow you about, fawning over you as you try to save the world yet again. You may be able to tempt a saint, but I am most definitely far from being anywhere near saintly. So do your job, live your life, and kindly stay the bloody hell out of mine!"  
  
Ginny watched the man stalk angrily away in cloud of billowing black robes, and rolled her eyes, shaking her head feeling incredibly stupid. She had to be the biggest type of fool to ever exist…her face still burned with embarrassment. How was she going to survive the rest of the day?  
  
True, she had survived everything life had thrown at her so far, and lived to tell the tale…but how could she survive him?  
  
  
  
****************  
  
To Be Continued…  
  
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	5. 5 The Dueling Club

5. The Dueling Club  
  
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Disclaimer: It's none of it mine!  
  
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"Good evening, Professor Snape," said Ginny coolly as she swept into the Great Hall after classes the next afternoon.  
  
Severus merely grunted from his stiff position near the teachers' table. He looked about as happy to be there as a person awaiting execution.  
  
Ginny stepped up onto the dais where the teachers' table was situated and looked out over the crowd of eager faces with a grin.  
  
"Good evening, everyone. I'm glad to see that everyone who signed up with me yesterday has shown up! It's good to see that you all have an interest in learning how to duel properly –" she ignored a low snort from Severus behind her – "and I hope that you all have a good time doing this. Now…I believe we'll have a demonstration before we begin – Professor Snape will be aiding me."  
  
Ginny tried not to shudder in reaction as she felt him move from behind her – he walked up to stand behind her very slowly, and she felt his gaze on her as she smiled weakly at the students again.  
  
"Now, the distance between you and your opponent should be ideally, at least five feet – gives you plenty of room to work with. But it doesn't always happen on polite terms…anyway, Professor Snape, if you will, take your spot and we'll begin."  
  
Severus tipped his head up slightly, obviously taking offense at her ordering him about. His black eyes glinted in the candlelight before he turned with a sweep of his robes, and moved several feet away before turning back on her, his rarely seen wand suddenly in hand.  
  
Ginny swallowed uneasily before drawing herself up and pulling her own wand from her pocket.  
  
"Tonight we'll be practicing the disarming charm only – I do not want to see any of you attempting anything else – or else you'll be spending time in detention with Professor Snape and I." Ginny gave them all what she hoped was a stern look, and turned her eyes back to her 'opponent'.  
  
"First, if at all possible, bow – " Ginny bent forward slightly, and she watched Severus's lip curl slightly as he barely nodded.  
  
"And raise you wands before you, like so…"  
  
Severus brought his wand up boredly, though the look in his eyes was anything but.  
  
"Now, on the count of three, we cast the first spells."  
  
Ginny drew in a deep breath, narrowing her eye slightly, and counted to three out loud.  
  
"Expelliarmus!"  
  
The demonstration couldn't have worked out any better if she herself had planned it – since they both shouted the disarming spell at the exact same time, their wands simply changed hands – she caught his deftly, her palm tingling as it curled around the handle, which was still warm from his hand.  
  
He looked at her, his brows arched in surprise, as he looked at her over the tip of her own wand.  
  
"Professor – what happens if the disarming charm doesn't work? What if their spell hits you first?"  
  
Ginny tore her eyes from Severus's with difficulty, and searched out the student who'd asked the question.  
  
"Well, the disarming charm is helpful when you wish to avoid a confrontation – obviously you must use it quickly. If their spell strikes first, it's dependent upon the strength of it, if you'll be able to continue the duel. That's why it's important to be fast."  
  
"Now – you lot partner up – get your wands prepared…yes, yes, good. Everyone ready?"  
  
Ginny eyed the placement of the students carefully, and then nodded. "All right then –bow…and on the count of three – one…two…three!"  
  
The hall echoed with shouts of 'Expelliarmus!'  
  
She watched several students go blasting backwards, and thanked heaven she'd had the foresight to use a cushioning spell on the walls and floor.  
  
"Everyone all right?"  
  
Relieved to see no injuries, Ginny allowed the students several more tries, before bringing the lesson to an end.  
  
"We'll meet again, next week – and we'll see about trying a few hexes, all right?"  
  
Encouraged by the excited whispers of the students, and their smiles as they filed out of the hall, Ginny turned to retrieve her wand – and found it was still being held captive by Severus.  
  
Her heart picked up speed in an almost painful manner as she saw him standing there, a silent shadow, rolling her willow wand in his slim fingertips thoughtfully.  
  
She approached him, trying desperately not to trip over her robes.  
  
"I believe this belongs to you," she said, holding out his wand handle first.  
  
He took the wand slowly, and just as slowly, handed hers back.  
  
Her fingertips brushed his, and she froze, looking up into his guarded face.  
  
Severus pulled his hand away, still watching her.  
  
Ginny cleared her throat and turned away, moving toward a silver tray on the table that held two goblets of wine.  
  
"Would you care very much for a drink?" She picked up one of the goblets and took a suspicious sip. "I'm not much one for any kind of spirits, but this is actually quite tasty – I didn't think you'd care for juice, so I asked the House Elves to have this ready for you-" aware she was running on, Ginny clamped her lips onto her goblet and took a hasty gulp.  
  
Severus reached past her for his own drink and her eyes widened as his arm bumped hers.  
  
She took another long swallow, and then realized the goblet was empty.  
  
She licked her lips, and set the cup down, feeling slightly woozy.  
  
"Wow…that's really…strong." She swayed a bit on her feet, and she felt him push her none too gently into Dumbledore's high – backed chair.  
  
"I believe, Professor Weasley, that you are not at all alcohol tolerant."  
  
Ginny squinted up at him as the room began to swim around her. "Sure I am… I bet I could drink you under thisssis, er…this table."  
  
"Mmm – hmm. More like drink 'yourself' under this table," he murmured near her ear as he bent to replace his cup.  
  
Ginny shivered slightly, turning her head to look at him.  
  
He paused, inches from her face, and narrowed his eyes.  
  
"What are you looking at?" He snapped.  
  
Unable to believe she was saying it, she heard her voice whisper, "Why can't you like me, Severus? I don't expect your love…but why can't you at least like me?"  
  
****************  
  
Severus found himself staring into her soft, lonely brown eyes with something akin to fear.  
  
He tried to move away from her, but he didn't move fast enough – she reached over, grabbed the back of his head, and kissed him deeply.  
  
He almost let her do it, and it made him furious.  
  
Severus pushed her away, scowling fiercely.  
  
"What the bloody hell do you think –"  
  
She murmured something unintelligible and her head rolled forward onto her chest as she fell back into the chair.  
  
He rolled his eyes, and stood up, raking a hand through his hair in indecision.  
  
He could leave her there, leave her to the humiliation of waking up with a hangover in front of everyone in the castle the next morning – it was really what he ought to do. It actually might teach the girl a lesson…  
  
She mumbled again, in her sleep, and tried to find a comfortable position in the chair.  
  
Severus crossed his arms, and looked down on her in immense dislike. He actually turned away, and was walking down the steps when she sighed his name behind him.  
  
Fairly growling, he turned on his heel, walked back to her and picked her up in his arms impatiently.  
  
He managed to find her rooms with little difficulty – and luckily enough, no one saw him.  
  
Depositing her on her bed, he tugged the pointed hat from her head, and carelessly tossed a blanket over her before he left, snarling under his breath about silly females who couldn't hold their liquor.  
  
*****************  
  
Ginny heard Severus leave very vaguely, but even the slight knowledge that he had carried her to bed, left her with a tiny smile on her lips throughout the night.  
  
*****************  
  
To Be Continued…  
  
A/N: Sorry if this was a bit boring – I'm working on the next chapter, and it's kind of gotten most of my attention. Thanks! - Key 


	6. 6 Of Serpents And Hags

Disclaimer: Really, do you ever just want to type "YES, DAMN IT, IT'S MINE!"? :D Of course it's not mine. Sheesh.  
  
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6. Of Serpents And Hags  
  
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The fire in the Slytherin common room was burning low in the grate, early in the wee hours of the morning, when something moved from the fluffy bed of ashes below it – a head appeared, shaking dust from itself, and two jewel – like red eyes surveyed the dark, empty room.  
  
Moments later, a thin, pale, silvery gray serpent slithered forth, steam rising from its white - hot scales. It moved across the threadbare carpet in an abrupt, zigzagging fashion, as if looking for something…  
  
The Ashwinder paused, it's eyes glowing in the shadows as they searched out the darkest, most secluded place in sight.  
  
The sharp eyes settled on a barely discernable crack in the stone wall, which was covered with a tapestry – a black forked tongue slid out to taste the air, and the snake crossed to the fissure, leaving a fine trail of dust in it's wake.  
  
***************  
  
Ginny was sitting on the edge of her bed, slipping a glass of water and feeling miserable, contemplating the day.  
  
She choked and coughed when the door to her bedroom was thrown open, and Severus stalked in. She gasped as she saw that the tail of his robes had great, smoldering holes in them.  
  
"What happened?" She set aside her water and stood up, her head still pounding from the single glass of wine she'd downed the night before.  
  
He crossed his arms and stared down his nose at her through the tiny tendrils of smoke rising around him. His hair was in a crazy tangle, and his burnt robes looked as if he'd slept in them – which he probably had…  
  
"I only stopped by to warn you, Virginia, to check your rooms for Ashwinder eggs - a foolish Slytherin attempted to use floo powder in the common room last night, and it resulted in the near destruction of my own rooms." He said tightly, his usually deep, silky voice sounding hoarse.  
  
"Oh my God!" Ginny hurried over to him, her hands clasping his robes. "Are you all right?"  
  
He shrugged off her touch with a sneer. "Get a hold of yourself, Weasley – I'm perfectly fine. Just a stroke of bad luck, is all."  
  
"Is the fire out?"  
  
"Would I be here if it wasn't?" Severus turned away, only to pause in the doorway.  
  
"I might recommend a refresher course on the danger of misusing magical fires for your class today, Professor,"  
  
Ginny was tempted to childishly stick her tongue out at his back as he swept out of the room, but her head hurt too badly.  
  
All she could think about was that he could have died of smoke inhalation, if he hadn't woken up in time to extinguish the fire…  
  
Thank God he was all right…  
  
Well, she amended thoughtfully, if being his usual, grouchy self was considered normal…  
  
She wandered off to her classroom, opting to skip breakfast in favor of finding a charm to banish her hangover.  
  
  
  
****************  
  
  
  
Severus mourned the loss of several shelves of ingredients in his private store later that morning – thankfully, he'd managed to contain the fire with a freezing spell, and had prevented damage to his considerably more important, rare collection.  
  
He was sitting at his desk during the lunch break, when he saw Ginny's red head with its black, feathered hat pop around the door.  
  
He kept his eyes on his work, ignoring her completely, although he had to hide a small wince as he reflexively swallowed and the soreness of his burned throat flared.  
  
"Hello…just thought I'd drop by and see how you were faring," the girl said brightly, walking right up to his desk as if she had every right to be there.  
  
Severus tried very hard not to note to himself that she had been the only one that day to inquire further about his well being.  
  
"I am well," he managed to mutter, concentrating on dipping his quill pen into his crystal ink well, uncomfortable in a way he'd never known beneath the scrutiny of her eyes.  
  
"I'm very glad to hear it – it would have been awful if you'd died, and had to haunt the school with the rest of the ghosts…" she said merrily with a small, musical laugh that drew his nerves taut.  
  
"I very seriously doubt I would ever return as a spirit, Virginia." He stated coldly. He looked up at her at last "May I assume there is another reason you are still present? I have work, you see."  
  
The twinkle went out of her brown eyes, and he cursed himself.  
  
"I'm terribly sorry to have disturbed you, Professor Snape – the next time some terrible misfortune occurs to you, I'll remind myself not to bother!"  
  
"I don't understand why you bothered in the first place – it's not as if anyone here wouldn't be glad to see the back of me," he growled at her retreating back, dropping the quill back into it's stopper. He watched her freeze, and bit his tongue in punishment. Why had he said that?  
  
"I would," he heard her whisper stubbornly, and then she was gone.  
  
He stared at the mess he'd made of the paper before him and pushed it away with a snarl.  
  
He'd subconsciously gone fishing for that response, and she probably knew it.  
  
Disconcerted, he didn't realize how much time had passed as he stared down at his desk, until the next class began arriving.  
  
  
  
******************  
  
  
  
Ginny scowled as her students stubbornly refused to pay her any mind.  
  
They looked on her as being one of them, which was fine by her – as long as they listened to what she had to say.  
  
She'd obviously been too easy on them.  
  
Ginny searched her mind, and then came upon the perfect solution.  
  
"The Basilisk is what we'll be studying today – also known as the King of Serpents," she said loudly, tapping her foot impatiently.  
  
That had definitely gotten her classes errant attention. The lot of them turned around in their seats to stare up at her silently.  
  
"As I'm sure you all already know about the events of my unfortunate brush with Hogwarts resident Basilisk, we won't waste time with questions about it. Suffice it to say, it was a very large, very dangerous creature, and I'm quite lucky to be here."  
  
"Now, does anyone know how the Basilisk is created?"  
  
She smiled in satisfaction as a dozen hands shot up.  
  
  
  
*******************  
  
  
  
Ginny's first teacher's meeting proved to be rather enjoyable.  
  
Especially since she had the opportunity to see Severus so uncomfortable he was practically scratching at the door to get out of the teacher's lounge.  
  
Dumbledore was outlining the rest of the term and some changes he had made in the schedule – including the addition of a Halloween Ball.  
  
Ginny, who was watching Severus with great interest, noticed his skin go slightly green.  
  
He excused himself soon after.  
  
"What's gotten into him?" She found herself asking out loud.  
  
Albus smiled. "Severus isn't terribly fond of social events, Ginny. He had a rather bad experience at a Hogwarts ball once."  
  
"A ' bad' experience, Albus?" Minerva snorted.  
  
Ginny was dying to ask what had happened when no further information seemed forthcoming, but decided it would be improper.  
  
She left the meeting later, wondering what could possibly have happened to him that had been so awful it still affected him so badly…  
  
***************  
  
Severus gave her a nasty glance.  
  
"You must be joking, Virginia."  
  
Ginny crossed her arms and cocked her head slightly. "Should I take that as a resounding no?"  
  
He looked up from the cauldron he was busily stirring, and narrowed his eyes. "Yes."  
  
"Is the thought of escorting me the ball so very abhorrent?" Ginny thought for a moment, and then shook her head. "Wait – don't bother answering that – I already know what you're going to say."  
  
Severus turned away, walking into his storeroom. He returned moments later with several black feathers in hand.  
  
She wrinkled her nose at the potion boiling before her. "What is that you're brewing?"  
  
He bent his dark head as he carefully dropped the feathers in. "A potion that drives away annoying women," he muttered lowly, adjusting the flame beneath the cauldron.  
  
Ginny frowned and moved away towards the door. "Well, seeing as you're so determined to spend the rest of your life alone, I won't bother you anymore – tonight, anyway."  
  
**************  
  
Severus was surprised to note that Ginny barely paid him any attention at all over the next few weeks – other than a cheeky smile at dinner, or when she passed him in the hall, she seemed to have given up on pursuing him.  
  
The thought gave him mixed feelings, and he didn't care for that one little bit.  
  
At dinner one evening, a few days before Halloween, he arrived to discover an odd witch sitting in Minerva's place, and discovered her to be Albus's sister. Minerva had been called away on important business, and 'Bertie' was going to take over teaching Transfigurations for a day or two.  
  
He frowned suspiciously as they were introduced – he'd never known Albus had had a sister…and then every thought went flying out of his head as he stared at the woman in horror. He'd finally gotten a good look at her, and truly wished he hadn't…  
  
The woman had to be the most god – awful ugly creature he'd ever seen.  
  
The hag was some ten years his senior, had large buckteeth, and white streaked gray hair. There were moles everywhere he looked – and her voice was about as pleasant to listen to as fingernails screeching on a blackboard.  
  
He managed to keep himself civil as he murmured a greeting – but he was afraid there was an obvious look of disgust on his face as he noticed she was almost as wide in the hips as she was tall.  
  
Too late he noticed she'd taken a quite immediate fancy to him. He had to keep plucking her disturbingly hairy, plump hand from his leg throughout dinner – and on top of that, Ginny was laughing – 'laughing' – at him on his opposite side all the while!  
  
"If you please, Madam, restrain yourself!" He finally gritted out at Bertie through his teeth.  
  
He turned a black look on Ginny who snorted beside him, and clapped a hand over her mouth, her shoulders shaking as she struggled to keep from laughing out loud.  
  
Bertie giggled obnoxiously beside him and Severus groaned.  
  
The evening got worse from there.  
  
"Severus – Albus tells me there is to be a ball in a few days time…"  
  
He froze as he raised a fourth glass of wine to his lips. He dared a look at Bertie from the corner of his eye, and winced as she opened her thick- lipped mouth to ask something he instinctively knew was coming.  
  
"Er, yes, Bertie…there is – you'll excuse me for a moment." At which point he rose, setting down his glass, and grabbed Ginny by the arm, practically dragging her out the back entrance of the hall into a cold corridor.  
  
"Another stroke of bad luck, Professor?"  
  
He scowled down at her as she grinned up at him, blowing a strand of red hair from her eyes.  
  
"Don't give me that, Weasley – if you'd been sitting next to that great erumpent in there all evening you'd have wanted to escape, too."  
  
"I think Bertie is quite…entertaining," Ginny managed before she burst out laughing again, holding her stomach and turning away from him.  
  
Severus rolled his eyes and grasped her shoulder, pulling her back to face him.  
  
"Virginia – "  
  
"I – its Ginny," she gasped, still giggling. "I'll only answer to Ginny."  
  
"Ballocks…oh, very well, 'Ginny'…tell me you haven't an escort for the ball as of yet."  
  
"Well, now that you ask –"  
  
"Ginny." Her name came out as a growl.  
  
"Well, no, but –"  
  
"Thank God. Don't say another word – I'll be escorting you."  
  
"But you said –"  
  
"Forget what I said," he snapped in exasperation. "Tell me you'll go with me."  
  
She pursed her lips and proceeded to look as if she were thinking hard.  
  
"Ginny!" He hissed through is teeth in warning.  
  
"Oh, all right! Of course I'll go with you – but I think poor Bertie will be absolutely heartbroken!" Ginny lost control of herself and began giggling again.  
  
Severus glared at her and threw the door open, walking back into the hall.  
  
Ginny followed him a few moments later, red cheeked.  
  
"Wait, Snape – here comes Bertie. Isn't she sweet? I do believe she has a 'crush' on you, Professor."  
  
Severus sneered at her before Bertie came even with them.  
  
"Professor Snape," she whined through her protruding teeth, "I was wondering if perhaps you might care to escort me to the ball?"  
  
****************  
  
Ginny turned away and had to bite the cuff of her robe sleeve to keep from howling at the horrified expression on Severus's face.  
  
"Er – well, you see, Bertie, I would normally be honored…but Professor Weasley has already accepted my offer that we go together…I do hope you'll understand."  
  
Bertie looked crestfallen. "Oh! Well…all right, then, Professor," she said, her chins quavering, and moved away after shooting Ginny a rather snide look.  
  
Severus nearly collapsed with relief beside her.  
  
Ginny shook her head, and sighed, clapping a hand on his arm comfortingly.  
  
"You poor man…it must be awful for you, being so p – popular with t –the ladies!"  
  
Ginny turned and walked away, receiving odd looks from the students as she walked up the aisle to the front entrance of the great hall, nearly crying with her laughter.  
  
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To Be Continued…  
  
A/N: Sorry it took so long to get that up – hope it wasn't too silly. Thanks to everyone for reviewing ! – Key  
  
* An Erumpent is the Wizarding world's equivalent to an elephant, I think. : D Just in case you were wondering… 


	7. 7 Dreaming

Disclaimer: Nope. Not mine. Too bad.  
  
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7. Dreaming  
  
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The preparations for the ball were finished, and Ginny excused herself from the newly decorated hall to go and dress for the ball.  
  
An hour later she was done, and she waited by the windows in her room, having opened them to the cool night air. A flash of far off lightning lit the black sky momentarily, and she heard the warning rumble of distant thunder.  
  
A rushing breeze spilled across her heated cheeks, and she closed her eyes to savor the crisp, clean scent of the fall air.  
  
She opened her eyes slowly when a sharp, impatient knock sounded on her door, and she took a deep, steadying breath before walking to it and opening it.  
  
"Good evening," she said cordially, offering up her friendliest smile.  
  
The man stood glaring down his nose at her with a familiar sour look on his face, looking very much as though he'd been force - fed an entire orchard of lemons.  
  
Ginny felt her smile disappear with the force of a suddenly deflated balloon.  
  
Obviously friendly just wasn't going to cut it with this man…  
  
Ginny resisted the urge to roll her eyes – the robes he wore were identical to the ones he wore everyday, with the exception of a bit of ornate silver trim at the collar, wrists and hem. At least he appeared to have bothered pulling a brush through his hair. It looked a bit less – stringy.  
  
He scowled at her as he caught her running her eyes over him.  
  
She took his reluctantly offered arm with a sigh. She was hopeless. Even with that awful expression, she still thought he was beautiful.  
  
"How are you feeling, tonight, Severus?"  
  
He frowned. "Who appointed you my nursemaid, exactly?"  
  
She sent him a dirty look.  
  
"I was only curious. Just trying to help –"  
  
He snorted. "You? Don't think I've forgotten how clumsy you were in my class, always breaking things, tripping over yourself – indeed, kindly warn me then, the next time you set out to help me, so that I might have the providence to take cover."  
  
"Did anyone ever tell you that you have a way of speaking that makes a person feel like a useless, brainless fool?"  
  
"I'll take that as a compliment," was all he said, as they continued along the corridor.  
  
"Aren't you going to tell me how lovely I look?" She at last teased, grinning up at him.  
  
"Fishing about for compliments, Virginia?" He slid her a dark glance for the corner of his eye.  
  
"Of course, I'm a woman…if I don't ask, how else am I ever going to get any?"  
  
"You're trying to tell me that men don't give you compliments."  
  
"Not really – I don't think red - orange frizzy hair and freckles are terribly popular right now," she replied lightly.  
  
Severus surprised her by stopping in the corridor, and turning to face her, running critical dark eyes over her.  
  
She felt uncomfortable under the intense scrutiny. She looked down at her slightly worn, antique gold colored dress robes with a sigh. "What? Is there something in my teeth?"  
  
He smiled, and it felt as though the sun itself were shining down on her for the briefest moment, and then it was gone, replaced by a familiar scowl.  
  
"Any man would be pleased to have a lady as lovely as you on his arm," he stated gruffly, sounding anything but pleased.  
  
Ginny bit her lip and then smiled. "I'm not lovely, really – but it's kind of you to lie."  
  
"I wasn't lying…your hair is quite eye – catching, and your skin is unblemished –"  
  
She shook her head and laughed. She guessed that to him, those were compliments!  
  
"My skin isn't unblemished – I've been trying to get rid of these horrid freckles forever."  
  
His hand lifted, and his fingertips brushed her cheek slightly, before he dropped his hand and moved away.  
  
"Leave your freckles be, Ginny – as the saying goes, perfection is boring."  
  
Ginny took his arm again, her cheeks feeling warm.  
  
Had there ever been any doubt in her mind that she didn't want to spend her entire life loving this man?  
  
She felt his arm tense beneath her hand, when they approached the great hall.  
  
"Afraid Bertie might ask a dance of you?" Ginny couldn't help teasing.  
  
He didn't bother answering, but he paused in his step, and she thought he looked as skittish as a high – strung Hippogriff.  
  
"Severus," she said gently, trying to get his attention.  
  
He looked down at her at last, swallowing.  
  
"What are you so nervous about? I've seen you at the balls before remember? You never looked so…so ill with nerves."  
  
A small bitter smile curved his lips. "That's because I always kept myself busy by chasing students out of the bushes outside," he said dryly.  
  
Ginny laughed softly.  
  
"Professor McGonagall mentioned you'd had a bad experience at a ball here, once – "  
  
"It wasn't at the ball, exactly…but during," he began reluctantly. "It was back when I was still a student here, see, and Sirius Black…"  
  
***************  
  
Ginny listened to his story carefully, cajoling him along when he paused, glaring back when he snapped at her and called her meddlesome…  
  
"Oh, that must have awful for you – you had to have been petrified!"  
  
"I don't mind saying I was – seeing a werewolf for the first time at any age is quite enough to scare the wits out of anyone…not to mention that the only thing between it and I was the length of a tunnel," he drawled darkly.  
  
"I'm glad nothing happened to you," murmured Ginny earnestly, taking his hand.  
  
A passing student unwisely dared a whistle at the sight, and Severus pulled his hand away, sending a fierce glare after the boy.  
  
Ginny ground her teeth and took it again, catching him off guard, and finally dragged him into the darkened hall.  
  
She came to a halt so suddenly that his momentum brought him stumbling into her back, and Ginny lost her balance, and fell forward.  
  
"Whoa!" She yelled, as she felt herself falling, and she clutched at any kind of handhold, but found only air.  
  
A hard arm caught her around the waist, and she was yanked back just before her face would have made contact with the stone floor.  
  
Every thought disappeared from her mind as she felt the entire length of her body pressed impossibly close up against Severus's, and his silky hair brushed her cheek as he bent his head forward to speak to her.  
  
"Are you all right?"  
  
She suppressed a violent shudder, and swallowed hard, trying to get past the fact that the man she'd loved for almost five years was finally touching her, willingly.  
  
"I – I'm okay," she finally got out, resisting the urge to press her temple to his jaw.  
  
"Good, I'm ever so glad to hear it – now get the bloody hell off my foot."  
  
Ginny blinked twice before his harsh, but softly spoken command finally reached her desire-fogged brain.  
  
"Oh – er, sorry, Snape," she tried to say evenly, but even she could hear the tremble in her voice as she stepped away from him, and his strong arm slid from around her waist.  
  
She made herself turn and look up at him, but her breath caught at the sight of him looking down at her intently, almost questioningly, as if something about her had totally perplexed him.  
  
She dared a shaky smile, which he did not return and mumbled something horribly lame about chaperoning before walking off, her cheeks burning.  
  
**************  
  
Severus watched Ginny walk away with a slight frown.  
  
What was wrong with the stupid girl? Her face had been almost as red as her hair. She must have been embarrassed about tripping in front of everyone – what other reason would she have for trembling so in his arms, or looking so flushed and breathless…  
  
It wasn't as if she'd been as affected by his nearness as he had been hers – it was a ridiculous idea, that she found him so attractive it made her nervous…or unbelievably clumsy…  
  
He crossed his arms and narrowed his stare on her thoughtfully as she moved away from him.  
  
Odd, that the girl was so graceless around him – she always he'd been, even in her first year, jumping at the sound of his voice, writing her notes in a nearly indecipherable hand as he stood over her shoulder, continually dropping something or another…and yet to hear it, she was as cool and efficient as a machine out in the field.  
  
When she'd been in his class, he'd thought she was merely being an empty headed child, that she was as intimidated by him as every other student he had.  
  
Severus continued to watch her, fascinated by the unrealistic possibility that perhaps she really had been telling the truth about being in love with him.  
  
He snorted at the thought, making a couple of second years standing nearby jump guiltily, even though they'd been doing absolutely nothing wrong, and quickly move away.  
  
The potions vapors must have finally been pickling his brain.  
  
Still, it was curious…  
  
**************  
  
Ginny saw Bertie, crossing to talk to Severus, and pitied the poor woman for thinking the man would spare her a glance, let alone a kind word.  
  
She could have told her not to bother – she herself had only been trying for the past month!  
  
Ginny leaned against the wall, and let her head fall to one side as she studied him.  
  
What exactly was it about him that she loved so much?  
  
She thought for a moment, and then shook her head – there was no point in going through the list again – she was stuck with the greasy haired git.  
  
The thought made her smile, and her eyes softened as she stared across the room at him, over the heads of the dancing couples.  
  
What wouldn't she give to have him look at her with something besides displeasure or annoyance?  
  
Hell, what wouldn't she give for him to just touch her again, even in a way as simple and innocent as he had when he'd caught her?  
  
Ginny caught his black gaze over Bertie's head, and the power of it made her chest ache…she returned the slightly questioning look with one of her own, and watched as he absently murmured an answer to something Bertie had said, never taking his eyes off hers.  
  
For once she was too caught up in the turmoil of her feelings to get flustered and look away. She saw his hard features soften the slightest bit, and discovered her eyes were tearing up, for no reason at all, really.  
  
"Professor Weasley?"  
  
Ginny dropped her eyes with an effort, and took a deep breath as she looked to whoever had said her name.  
  
"Professor…would you do me the honor?"  
  
She smiled at the seventh year Gryffindor boy who stood before her, looking hopeful. The untidiness of his black hair and the large bright eyes peering at her from behind round rimmed glasses reminded her so much of Harry, she couldn't find it in her heart to say no.  
  
"Of course – but I have to warn you, I can't dance a whit," she confided in an exaggerated whisper that made the boy smile.  
  
"Me either – but I'm game if you are, Professor."  
  
*************  
  
Severus watched Ginny place her hand in the boy's and felt an angry knot twist in his gut.  
  
The boy looked too much like James in this light – and Ginny looked too much like Lily. Far too much like her for his liking.  
  
It hadn't been much of a secret back then that he'd been in love with Lily Evans. It'd been a bit more of a joke, really, one that Black had delighted in torturing him over constantly.  
  
He watched the tall boy look down at Ginny, who was several inches shorter, and laugh at something she said.  
  
The song was a slow one, and he decided then and there that he hated it with a fiery passion.  
  
He barely noticed when Bertie finally gave up trying to talk to him, and walked away in a huff.  
  
Severus found himself walking forward when the boy rested his hand on Ginny's slender hip, intent on giving him a month's worth of detention for something, he didn't know what yet, but for something…  
  
"Ah, Severus! Bertie was looking for you -"  
  
Albus caught him before he reached them, and he almost bit off his tongue trying to keep the frustrated curse on it from escaping.  
  
*************  
  
A forlorn looking bat hung from the back of Dumbledore's chair, and Ginny sighed, scooping the small, furry black creature into her hand as she took her seat behind the teacher's table after her dance.  
  
"What are you looking so lost for little one?" She held the softly squeaking bat in both hands, looking it over for any injuries – but she couldn't find any reason for the poor things sluggishness.  
  
The small fruit bat made a faint chirping noise, not unlike that of a bird, and Ginny smiled at it, feeling the leathery softness of it's wings fluttering against her skin – the bat made no move to escape.  
  
"Dear God, woman, what are you doing with that creature?"  
  
Ginny looked up to see Severus lowering himself into his seat next to her, and her heart gave a painfully excited leap at the sight of him in the darkened hall.  
  
"Well? I believe the bats were meant to lend atmosphere to the surroundings – not as party favors."  
  
She smiled at his dry tone, and watched as the bat scrabbled up her robe sleeve. She lifted her hair and tied it into a careless knotted ponytail so it wouldn't become entangled in it, and watched, amused, as the tiny bat dropped, and dangled upside down from the fabric of her robes.  
  
"He's a loner," she explained, reaching out a finger to rub the bats' fuzzy belly. "He thinks he's too good to hang out with his friends up there."  
  
"He seems to have no problem with you," Severus remarked, watching the bat with distaste.  
  
"Don't you like bats, Snape?" She pushed the tip of a gently tickling wing away from her jaw, and looked over at the dark man sitting beside her.  
  
"I haven't much of a problem with using their wings for potions," he stated coldly as he watched the silky black lump wiggling on her shoulder.  
  
As if the bat had heard and understood, it suddenly squeaked and took flight, disappearing into the mass of bats and eerily lit jack o' lanterns floating overhead.  
  
"You scared the poor thing half to death," chastised Ginny, pulling her hair out of its knot.  
  
She didn't notice his dark eyes tracing the slender curve of her neck as she lifted her hair away, and the tensing of his jaw as she let the shiny, curling mass fall across her shoulders.  
  
Ginny let her gaze flicker over to his just in time to catch him turning his head away.  
  
"You don't care for creatures much, do you? I mean you don't have a pet – or an owl…"  
  
"What use would I have for a pet? Or an owl for that matter? I have no desire to form any attachments,"  
  
"Right," Ginny muttered, drumming her fingernails on the tabletop. "How could you remember to feed a pet, when you can't even remember to eat, yourself?"  
  
"Perhaps you should concern yourself less with my eating habits and more with 'Potter' over there," he snapped rather sourly.  
  
Ginny looked confused. "Oh, you mean Ashley Primmer –" she crooked her head to look around at the tall boy again, and she smiled. "Yes, he does look a lot like Harry,"  
  
" 'Ashley'," Snape snorted, shaking his head. "I believe you've landed yourself another loyal follower, Virginia."  
  
"He's a student," said Ginny, looking insulted by his insinuation.  
  
"And I told you, it's Ginny."  
  
Severus looked like he was doing his best to ignore her. She looked at him closely, her eyes narrowing.  
  
"Oh my God. You're jealous, aren't you?" Her jaw dropped as she stared at him.  
  
He turned his head so fast he very nearly twisted it right off his neck.  
  
"I beg your pardon?"  
  
Ginny grinned, not put off in the slightest by his dangerously soft whisper. "You're jealous."  
  
"Jealous of what, may I ask?"  
  
"Me." The single word came out in an excited squeal.  
  
He looked her up and down insultingly, his distaste for her behavior obvious.  
  
"You certainly are full of interesting theories," he finally sneered nastily, looking away. "You must be dreaming."  
  
"And you're hiding. I know you care for me," she divulged, leaning over to whisper in his ear.  
  
"You're insane."  
  
"I know…I know because of the way your eyes follow me, the way you hesitate after I smile at you…"  
  
"Have you been drinking the wine?"  
  
"I know because of the way your words stumble when I laugh…and though you may not believe it yet – I don't think you could for the world, ever bring yourself to ever hurt me."  
  
Ginny watched his anger slowly build.  
  
This was it – this was the reaction she'd been waiting for…  
  
He slapped his hands flat on the table so loud it made her flinch, and stood up, grabbing her elbow.  
  
"What are you doing?" Ginny swallowed as he pulled her from the hall, his fingers digging bruisingly into the flesh of her arm.  
  
He didn't answer, but continued pulling her along until they reached the main entrance hall, and he let her go near the stairs.  
  
She rubbed her arm, looking up at him with a censuring glance. "That hurt!"  
  
Severus only looked at her coldly.  
  
"I guess that blows your theory about me all to hell, then," he drawled slowly, darkly, one black brow arching.  
  
Ginny shook her head. Her eyes dropped, and she caught sight of his wand slung through the belt clasped around his slim waist.  
  
His strong, agile fingers were slowly caressing the ornately carved handle.  
  
She wondered what it would feel like to have them touching her face again, or stroking her hair…  
  
"You are a most annoying and insolent child," he commented suddenly, his dark eyes glinting. He reached up a hand to rub his temple.  
  
"Headache, my love?"  
  
"Yes – and don't call me that!" He snapped, eyes flashing.  
  
"All right – if you'll stop calling me 'child'", she snapped back.  
  
"Then desist in acting like one, Professor!"  
  
Ginny stared up at him as he loomed over her, looking sinister and dispassionate, and she tried to reign in her rising temper.  
  
"You don't scare me anymore, Severus Snape – I'm not that silly little girl shrinking away from you in your class anymore, so don't think you can intimidate me! I may love you, but I won't stand you trying to treat me as if I were some snake slithering across the toe of your boot!"  
  
"There's little chance of me treating you that way, my dear, I actually care for serpents!"  
  
She felt her face tighten, and then she released a frustrated sob, and promptly burst into tears.  
  
***********  
  
Severus stared at Ginny in horror – she was crying.  
  
It wasn't that he'd never seen her cry before, but what was making him feel so wretched was the fact that he'd made her cry. It had been his fault…  
  
At a loss for what to do, he looked around the hall helplessly, but it was deserted.  
  
She turned away from him, her face buried in her hands, and he felt something akin to panic rise inside his chest.  
  
He knew he should just walk away, and leave her alone, but he couldn't make himself move. He just stared at her in fascinated dismay, and felt every sound of distress she made scrape along his nerves like a dull razor blade.  
  
Ballocks, he thought finally, and resignedly reached out to place a comforting hand on her shoulder.  
  
She bolted suddenly before his hand ever made contact, and he watched, too surprised to say anything, as she picked up the hem of her long robes and ran from the hall out into the night, her sobs echoing behind her.  
  
Severus stood there, contemplating either retreating to his rooms with a bottle and forgetting the whole the night, or going after her.  
  
Thunder sounded in the distance, and he swore.  
  
A moment later he stalked after her with another frustrated curse.  
  
***********  
  
Ginny stood at the top of the stairs leading down to the boat dock, and tried very hard not to smile as she looked out across the moonlit lake.  
  
It was an impressive sight, every bit as much as it had been when she'd first seen it years ago – even more so now, with storm clouds rolling in above the hills.  
  
"Looks every bit like a Halloween night is supposed to, doesn't it?" She said out loud finally, to the man who'd stepped up a few feet behind her.  
  
When he didn't answer, she turned back to him, feeling her hair rippling in the alternately warm and cold wind.  
  
His black robes blended him perfectly into the night, and with the legendary, torch lit castle rising so majestically behind him, the picture they made was one almost straight out of her dreams, the epitome of everything she most wanted in the world.  
  
Almost.  
  
There was, after all, the tiny problem that he didn't care.  
  
'He followed you,' a tiny voice protested, 'he wouldn't have if he didn't at least care.'  
  
She wanted to roll her eyes, and choke that part of her that was so frustratingly ever hopeful.  
  
"We should get inside – it's going to start storming any minute."  
  
Ginny gathered her robes, and started past him, but he put out an arm to block her way.  
  
She stopped, but couldn't bring herself to look at him.  
  
"Just let me go."  
  
His outstretched arm didn't move.  
  
****************  
  
Severus tried to make himself move aside, but he couldn't.  
  
He watched her face, bathed in the moonlight, and didn't think he'd ever seen anyone like her. Moments before, when he'd followed her here, he'd seen her standing with a posture so defeated it had made a curious ache seep into his chest.  
  
"There's something here."  
  
She looked up at him, her brown eyes startled, and then the night went pitch as clouds swallowed up the moon.  
  
Her hand reached instinctively for his, and he gave it to her.  
  
"What did you say?"  
  
"There is something here. Between us." He found he could barely recognize his own voice.  
  
*******************  
  
Ginny held her breath, and waited. How long had she waited to hear him admit it?  
  
"There is something…but I can't afford to give into it."  
  
She closed her eyes and tried to pull her hand away, but he held it fast.  
  
"I can't be who I am and still care for you, Ginny."  
  
That was it? No regrets, no explanations?  
  
Rain started pouring down in cold, hesitant drops suddenly, as the night sky opened up overhead.  
  
"I'm going inside," she mumbled, brushing her damp curls from her face.  
  
"Ginny, wait – I – I'm…damn it, I won't apologize," he said urgently in a low, harsh voice. "This is me, this is how I am. I can't explain…"  
  
He took a step forward, and Ginny stumbled back blindly, startled, forgetting how close she'd been standing to the top of the rough hewn stone steps carved into the side of the cliff.  
  
Her foot caught in the trailing skirt of her robes, buckled beneath her, and she began to fall.  
  
With a single swift movement, Severus was at her side. His arms went around her, catching her, pulling her upright, holding her close.  
  
She was so close to him, so close she could smell the warm scent of his flesh, the clean fragrance of his dampening hair that spilled into his eyes, and brushed the tops of his shoulders. He was hard all over, and being that close to him made her knees weak.  
  
"Sweet Jesus, can you get any clumsier, girl?"  
  
"Just leave me alone," Ginny groaned miserably at his biting tone, feeling her cheeks burn in humiliation. She blinked through the rain at his spiky lashed eyes, and dropped her own.  
  
He sighed roughly, and then shook her slightly. "Ginny – are you all right?"  
  
Trembling, she again lifted her eyes to his features. The dim, wavering light from the torches outside the entrance hall played across them, casting shadows into sharp planes, glistening in his dark eyes, shining in the rain that fell on his midnight hair.  
  
Shivering, she shook her head slowly from side to side. The attraction, the desire he'd first stirred in her returned full force. She loved him, no matter what he said. She knew, too, that she had no business standing there with him when he'd clearly stated he wanted nothing to do with her.  
  
"Please," she whispered, begging for his understanding. "Please, this once."  
  
"You don't know what you're asking," he replied very faintly, but he drew her slowly against him, and she curved her body thankfully into his far larger one. "Don't tempt me."  
  
She let her head drop back, and raised a shaky hand and touched his cheek. Whatever umbrage, whatever aggression existed between them, it was cast out, however temporarily, in the shared need they both felt.  
  
"I – I just need to be close to you, Severus, please. Please…don't push me away."  
  
He leaned toward her, his breathing ragged - his lips brushed hers gently.  
  
Ginny wanted something deeper; she opened her lips beneath his, and touched her tongue to his lower lip.  
  
He froze, and she could feel his heart slamming against his ribs where she pressed herself against him.  
  
She moved her lips again, invitingly, and he clamped his mouth over hers with a husky groan.  
  
The rain falling around them began to come down heavier, and Ginny shivered at the coldness of it despite the intense heat she was feeling.  
  
Severus abruptly turned his head away, and set her from him.  
  
She looked up at him with heavily lidded eyes.  
  
"This never happened," he stated coldly, though a little breathlessly, shaking his wet hair from his eyes.  
  
Ginny chuckled softly despite herself. She licked her lips, savoring the taste of him, and the cool rain.  
  
"You want me to forget about that? About us? Impossible."  
  
He took a deep, shaky breath, anger flushing his pale cheeks.  
  
"Must I remind you, again – there is no 'us'? I'm telling you, Ginny, I'll forget all about you by the time I reach the hall."  
  
Ginny only chuckled again.  
  
He stiffened his back at the sound, and she watched his jaw clench, the muscles jumping wildly, before he turned and stalked away.  
  
She lifted her fingers to her slightly swollen lips, and watched his rigid back as he disappeared. How long had she wondered what his kiss might feel like? How many times over the past years had she tried to imagine it?  
  
Ginny looked back over her shoulder at the dark, rippling lake one last time, and picked up her soggy robes, before walking back to the castle.  
  
Her imagination definitely hadn't done him justice.  
  
*******************  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
To Be Continued…  
  
  
  
A/N: Thanks to everyone for the reviews – I love to hear your thoughts and opinions, so please keep them coming! Also, I think there may be more smoochies coming up next chapter - …and more Snape – isms, of course. Gotta' luv the sexy, cranky guy! : D - Key 


	8. 8 Ginny's Misfortune Revisited

Disclaimer: Consider this dis - claimed. ::cheeky grin::  
  
*****************  
  
Spoilers: J.K. Rowling's 'Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them'  
  
*****************  
  
8. Ginny's Misfortune Revisited  
  
*****************  
  
The D.A.D.A. classroom was filled with excitedly chattering teens - and favored topic of discussion, which wasn't at all surprising, was dear Professor Weasley.  
  
"I am so not kidding you.I swear, I saw them kissing, out by the cliff last night!"  
  
"How could you? You were with Dane Caldwell, dancing all night!"  
  
"Didn't you see me come in soaking wet last night? We were together dancing. But, not all night - "  
  
"Kayla!"  
  
"Don't be such a prude, Jakoby Barr! For your information, we were out walking, before it started raining - "  
  
"You mean you were outside kissing - "  
  
"Girl, will you just shut up and let me tell you what I saw?"  
  
"Saw what?"  
  
"Oh, hey Zander."  
  
"What are you guys talking about?"  
  
"Kayla says she saw Professor Weasley and Professor Snape snogging last night."  
  
"What? Ugh! You're demented! What would she want with that greasy old git? I saw her dancing with Ash last night!"  
  
"Ash is a student, you Hippogriff's ass. You should know better. Professor Weasley would never get involved with a student!"  
  
"Ash said differently - you shoulda' seen the Moon - calf eyed look on his face last night in the dorm, I thought he was going to lose it right there - "  
  
"Ew, Zander! He didn't say anything! Ash isn't like that!"  
  
"Don't get all aneurismal, Jakoby, I know Ash isn't a liar, and he wasn't lying - he said Professor Weasley was gazing at him all soft like - "  
  
"She was probably staring at Snape over his bloody shoulder - "  
  
"Shhh! Here she comes!"  
  
********************  
  
Ginny walked into an unusually silent classroom, a disturbing ache worrying at the base of her neck.  
  
She slowed in her step, looking around at the staring students with a look that was not quite a frown.  
  
She stepped up onto the dais where her desk was located, and smiled bemusedly.  
  
"Okay - I know I haven't got underwear or anything else equally embarrassing stuck to my robes - I checked - so what's the joke? Someone put a dung bomb under my chair? Is there a snake in my desk? What gives?"  
  
She watched her seventh year students give each other bewildered glances, each seeming to question the other.  
  
"Well?"  
  
"I - I don't think there is a joke, Professor," Ashley Primmer announced in his husky voice with a violent blush from the rear of the class, his hazel eyes sparkling.  
  
Ginny did frown then. Something was going on. Half of her students had suddenly become fascinated with the ceiling, or the floor, in between casting quick glances at herself.  
  
"Why is everyone looking at me so oddly then?"  
  
Ashley turned a brighter shade of pink and shrugged, looking away.  
  
A hesitant hand went up in the air at the far side of the room, and Ginny blinked at the girl, her nerves suddenly tingling in warning.  
  
"Yes, what is it, Kayla?" Ginny watched the girl stand up warily. Kayla Parkinson wasn't in Slytherin as her older sister Pansy had been, but in Hufflepuff instead - and the pretty girl was a notorious gossip.  
  
The girl's best friend, Jakoby Barr, tugged at Kayla's robes to no avail. She looked to Ginny like she desperately wanted her friend to shut up.  
  
Zander Sedley, a Gryffindor Prefect, and also the Head Boy, coughed loudly into his hand, averting his sharp gray gaze as her eyes came to rest on him, and ran a hand through his longish brown hair.  
  
Years of training told her something bad was about to come about. Her skin tightened as the girl opened her shiny pink lip glossed mouth, and the pain at the back of her head moved around to mercilessly tease her temples.  
  
*********************  
  
She was definitely going to be very unpopular with Severus.  
  
Boy, was she going to hear it.  
  
She was greatly tempted to give Kayla Parkinson a detention, for spreading lies, but she couldn't because the girl hadn't been lying - but she had been gossiping, and it was almost as bad, and could be twice as damaging.  
  
Ginny hadn't given any one of her students detention at all so far, and she really didn't want to have to - so she'd settled for having a long talk with the girl after class.  
  
The harm had been done, though, and there was no stopping it. One couldn't shut up two dozen seventh year students, half of which were teenage girls with quick, wagging tongues.  
  
She should know - she'd been one once.  
  
Ginny sighed, and reached for the door to her private quarters. A distressingly familiar fatigue was settling over her. She really didn't think she was up to going down to dinner that night.  
  
"Virginia - a word, if you please?"  
  
Ginny paused with her hand on her door latch, pulled her velvet hat off and let her forehead fall to the door with a loud, distinct thud, feeling suddenly rather ill.  
  
It was Severus, and the cold inflection of his silky voice told her he definitely was not happy.  
  
She stared at the door and let her hand fall from the ornate silver handle as she reluctantly straightened up, trying desperately to draw back her slumping shoulders.  
  
'Here it comes,' she thought as she turned to face him. 'He's going to accuse me of it being all my fault. Well, he's not at all infallible, either -'  
  
"I've heard some disturbing news - "  
  
"Have you? Well, don't you dare blame it on me, Severus Snape!" Ginny swallowed, and blinked against the odd blurriness of her vision. She cleared her throat, and gave her head a slight shake. What had she been talking about?  
  
Severus was giving her an impatient, sharply accessing look.  
  
"What the bloody hell are you talking about, woman? Are you feeling well? You look feverish - "  
  
"Fever?" Ginny laid a hand over her cheeks and stared at him. She did feel awfully warm.  
  
"No, I don't have a fever," she denied. "Er - wait. You don't know?"  
  
He looked at her from where he stood a few steps away with annoyance, his dark brows drawn together in a frown. "Know what?"  
  
"Er - nothing - "  
  
He stepped forward, his robes slithering behind him, his shiny black eyes boring into her as he watched her suspiciously.  
  
"You certainly look ill.of course, you were probably too stupid to get dry quickly enough last night after you finally came in out of the rain."  
  
Ginny started to answer his cruel remark with a nasty one of her own, and then slumped back against the door. Her head was pounding, and the floor seemed very far away all of a sudden -  
  
"Virginia?"  
  
"I told you to stop calling me that, damn it!" Ginny snapped, closing her eyes against the dizziness she felt. Bloody hell - she recognized the symptoms now, she knew very well the rain the previous night had nothing to do with what she was feeling. She cursed out loud.  
  
He actually looked taken aback for a moment before he crossed his arms and pursed his lips into a familiar thin line. "Stupid girl, go lay down before you fall down. If you think I'm going to sweep you up into my arms - "  
  
"Oh, come off it, Severus - I'm not currently fantasizing about you, thank you very much! If you haven't anything sufficiently human to say, then I'll thank you to kindly shove off! I'm not in the mood!" Ginny sent him a venomous glare, to match the one he was currently directing at her.  
  
"My, my, aren't we in a pissy state," he drawled dangerously, eyes narrowed threateningly.  
  
"If you've got something to say, Snape, spit it the fuck out and leave me be!"  
  
Ginny bit her lip, surprised by her own words, and dropped her gaze to stare at the floor, which was beginning to swim alarmingly before her eyes.  
  
'Please, please, please, just go away,' she begged him silently.  
  
"Language, Professor, such language.we are in a school, you know. Your lack of self control just proves that you are not at all suitable for this position."  
  
She watched as he drew near, and bit her lip hard against the confusing wash of emotions assailing her.  
  
Snape looked at her with undisguised malice.  
  
"You've finally stumbled across the one thing you can't handle, haven't you?"  
  
"And you love being that one thing, don't you? You love pointing it out, don't you?"  
  
Ginny spun around, reaching blindly for the door latch again, only to see his strong, pale hand shoot out and grab her wrist.  
  
He tugged her around to face him again, his expression openly caustic.  
  
"What are you hiding?"  
  
"What are you talking about?"  
  
"Something is upsetting you - "  
  
"You!"  
  
Severus tightened his hand slightly.  
  
"I'd have thought that you'd be positively ecstatic if there were something upsetting me," she heard herself say bitterly.  
  
"Tell me," he bit out sharply.  
  
"Fine - I really don't know how it didn't get 'round to you by now anyway. One of the students saw us last night."  
  
He blinked and dropped her wrist as if it were burning him.  
  
"Are you properly horrified, now?" Ginny gritted her teeth against a sudden wave of nausea, and fumbled for the door latch again.  
  
"Don't worry about it, Snape - I'll talk to Dumbledore in the morning, I'll explain everything..."  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
"You are ill, aren't you?"  
  
She ignored his silkily voiced question and threw her weight almost desperately against the door, which had a tendency to stick. It opened, finally, and she stumbled inside to her bed, not bothering to close the door behind her.  
  
Ginny fell gratefully onto the soft four poster, and weakly tugged her wand from her robe pocket.  
  
Her hands were already shaking.  
  
How could she have forgotten? How could she have been so impossibly stupid?  
  
"Of course I could be that stupid," she mumbled beneath her breath, fumbling her grip on her wand, and rolling her eyes. "Why not? I was stupid enough to fall for him."  
  
"Accio potion!"  
  
Severus darted forward suddenly and deftly snatched the small glass vial soaring toward her out of the air before it ever reached her.  
  
He eyed the dark potion inside with an expert eye, and lifted it to the lamplight to study its color.  
  
Ginny rolled her eyes, and lay her wand on her bedside table with deliberate care.  
  
'Willow and dragon heart - string, nine and a half inches,' she thought idly, staring briefly at the highly polished wand, with it's intricately carved, delicately silver filigreed handle.  
  
Ginny swallowed, wetting her lips, and watched as Severus thumbed off the cork stopper of her vial of potion, and sniffed apprehensively.  
  
He was probably about to accuse her of having some scandalous kind of illegal drug addiction. Anything to see her dismissed.  
  
"It's - "  
  
"I know what it is," Snape snapped with a growl, popping the stopper back in place. "I can tell what it is just by the smell of it - an infusion of Cinchona bark. The question is, why do you have it?"  
  
"P.Vivax - a form of Malaria. It decides to revisit now and then, a little past misfortune I need reminding of, apparently," Ginny forced out lightly, and held up her hand. "May I have it now?"  
  
He looked at her, his sharply featured face grudgingly concerned. "Where the bloody hell did you manage to pick up Malaria?"  
  
"While I was in Sub - Saharan Africa, studying Fwoopers two years ago - "  
  
"Fwoopers." Severus snorted.  
  
"Yes, Fwoopers. Anyway, our camp was attacked by a particularly vicious Nundu, which we later learned had been stalking nearby villages - "  
  
"Dear God, you're lucky to be alive," Severus murmured abruptly, approaching her bed.  
  
"I am," said Ginny solemnly, absently reaching up a hand to finger the scar bisecting her eyebrow.  
  
"It breathed on you," he commented coldly, eyeing the beads of sweat gathering on her pale brow, and the shakiness of her hands.  
  
"Yes." Ginny met his eyes steadily, though the room was wavering behind him.  
  
"That's where you got the scar, from the Nundu's claws."  
  
"I actually lost the eye," she stated nonchalantly, shrugging her shoulders. "My team was lucky enough to have a rather talented MediWizard on hand, who saw to it immediately. Its claws are poisonous, though, as I'm sure you know, hence the little reminder, here... As for the Malaria, well, it could have been far worse, if the MediWizard hadn't acted so quickly." Ginny rubbed the white scar again and sighed tiredly. "Many of our group didn't make it."  
  
"We were glad to have been traveling in such a large number though, let me tell you - that leopard was the size of the Whomping Willow, easy, and ten times as violent. That's the only way we were able to subdue it -"  
  
"Sweet Jesus, woman - how can you lay there and act as if you didn't nearly lose your life," he muttered edgily, his hair falling into his eyes as he stared down at her.  
  
Ginny looked up at him with an unfocused gaze and flaming cheeks that could have put Ashley Primmer's to shame.  
  
"Why shouldn't I? You do it all the time - act as if you never went through any of what you did at the hands of Voldemort.for all our sakes. I always wanted to be like you, you know.I never have quite been able to achieve your coldness, though."  
  
She watched his face pale, and his expression close up tight.  
  
He tossed the vial carelessly into her hands and turned away. "Drink it," he ordered harshly.  
  
"Yes, Master," she said mockingly, and tilted the vial to her lips.  
  
"You've obviously, and very foolishly, I might add, forgotten your dosage of late," Severus remarked, moving away to the opposite side of the room. "Why are you still using this particular infusion? Didn't anyone tell you the dangers of ingesting too much Quinine?"  
  
"It's the active ingredient, isn't it? It's worked so far."  
  
"I can tell, even with you forgetting your dosages, you're building up an immunity to this particular potion.it's slowly becoming ineffective. The malarial parasites evolve mechanisms to resist them - "  
  
"You sound as if you're teaching class, Professor," Ginny said softly.  
  
"Why, Miss Weasley? Are you actually paying attention?" He asked sourly from across the room.  
  
"Tell me, what am I to do, then?"  
  
"I'll brew you a similar, more effective infusion containing the Chinese antipyretic Qinghao - otherwise known as Artemisia anuua. it contains Artemisinin."  
  
"I had no idea. That's kind of you, Snape," Ginny managed half - coherently. She mindlessly shrugged out of her robes, and struggled beneath her covers as she found herself shivering uncontrollably.  
  
"Kind," he snorted under his breath.  
  
He finally returned, a wet cloth in his elegant hands. "Thoughtless girl. It just proves you should have been paying attention in class instead of scribbling away at that nonsense in that blasted book of yours."  
  
Ginny smiled ruefully as he unceremoniously dropped the cool cloth over her eyes and forehead. "Ah, the infamous 'diary'. Sometimes I regret I ever threw it away, you know."  
  
She heard him clear his throat above her, and shift uncomfortably.  
  
A sudden thought came, unbidden, to her fuzzy mind.  
  
"You kept it, didn't you?" She fought to keep the smile out of her voice, and the sudden surge of hope she felt out of her heart.  
  
Her trained ear caught the sound of his breath catching before he snarled coldly, "Certainly not. That bloody thing was the instigator of this whole senseless mess - what would I want with the cursed thing?"  
  
"What indeed?" Ginny asked diffidently.  
  
"I strongly suggest you go to the Infirmary, Virginia -"  
  
"Will you stop calling me that? I hate it!"  
  
"Promise me you won't call me that anymore," she said fuzzily.  
  
"I don't make promises. I'm not very good at keeping them."  
  
"Promise me," she pulled off the cloth, looked up at him through her lashes, and reached out to grab his robes.  
  
He rolled his eyes toward the ceiling, and expelled a harsh breath. "Very well, I 'promise' - now let go of my bloody robes, I have business elsewhere."  
  
Ginny closed her eyes and fell back onto her pillows. "It figures - you leaving me here, all by myself, sick and feverish - "  
  
"- and still infuriatingly, maddeningly annoying," he muttered  
  
"Still infuriatingly, maddeningly, annoyingly in love with you," she corrected in a barely there murmur.  
  
Severus made a disgusted sound beside her and impatiently retrieved the cloth from her fingers, letting it plop carelessly over her eyes again.  
  
"Oh - I forgot to inform you. It seems Potter is returning to Hogwarts."  
  
"Harry? Why?" Ginny frowned and again yanked the cloth from her face.  
  
"Maybe he's coming to propose to you," she heard him grumbled beneath his breath.  
  
" 'If ' we're so fortunate."  
  
Ginny shifted on her bed to look over at him.  
  
"You are jealous, aren't you?"  
  
He cut his eyes at her, and didn't bother to answer. He probably thought silence was the best way to answer her contemptible claim.  
  
"So? Harry?"  
  
"Mr. Potter is coming to discuss Ministry business with Professor Dumbledore. He is to be our guest through the holidays."  
  
"Ah. You must be having kittens about that. Thought you'd finally gotten rid of him, hadn't you?" Ginny smiled sleepily. "Ahh, Harry. Who'd have thought he'd give up a chance to play professional Quidditch to go run around for the Ministry?"  
  
"The Great Harry Potter, give up the opportunity to play hero to witches and wizards all around the world? You have a singular sense of humor."  
  
Ginny began shivering in earnest, and tugged her blankets closer as her teeth began to chatter. "How's it feel to know he could have your job, if he wanted?" She couldn't help teasing.  
  
"Potter knows very well what kind of teacher I am - he's not about to relieve me of my duties any time soon. Don't you know by now, that I'm Hogwarts resident watchdog?"  
  
"And don't you sound cheerful about it!"  
  
She watched him prowl beside her bed, and held out an unsteady hand.  
  
"Severus."  
  
He turned back to face her and froze in mid - step.  
  
She crooked a finger. "Come. Sit." She patted the edge of the bed.  
  
He scowled.  
  
"Please?"  
  
Ginny gave him a pleading look, and did her best to look as pitiful as possible. She didn't have to try very hard.  
  
He crossed his arms, and took the few steps to stand above her - he did not make any move to sit.  
  
Ginny sighed, and swallowed nervously, letting her hand drop to the mattress. She closed her eyes and began to speak, not even completely sure of what she was going to say.  
  
"Harry was my childhood love, you know? Every girl has one - the guy she gets up and goes to school for every morning.but that changed, like everything does, like everything is supposed to. I grew up, and I started to see you. I knew there was something different about the way I felt about you. Harry is.my friend."  
  
"I don't recall inquiring about your relationship to 'the boy who wouldn't die'," he muttered impatiently from somewhere above her, sounding aggravated.  
  
"I could cheerfully strangle you at times."  
  
"I believe I much prefer you vaguely homicidal to incurably romantic."  
  
"I'm going to sleep," Ginny groaned, and rolled onto her side away from him, her temples pounding.  
  
Only silence met her ears, and she finally allowed sleep to claim her, as it offered a slight respite from the effects of her fever.  
  
********************  
  
To Be Continued.  
  
A/N: Ah, many groveling thanks to you lovely reviewers - you have no idea how VERY much I appreciate you!!! Plus, so sorry about the disturbing lack of smoochies.  
  
: D  
  
J.K.'s Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them - luv that book! All of the creatures mentioned in this chapter originate from there, along with the facts and locations, and thanks to Malaria Foundation International, on whose site I found the much needed info on herbal malarial treatments.  
  
Fwooper - Colorful African bird whose song is purportedly able to eventually drive any Wizard listening to it, insane.  
  
Nundu - A Gigantic leopard found in Africa whose breath spreads awful, lethal disease, and is capable of destroying entire villages.  
  
- These are 'loosely' based summaries of the creatures from J.K.'s book.  
  
(Again, I don't own it, so don't sue - I have about three cents to my name.oh, and a slightly squashed Moon Pie. Hope you like the Vanilla kind.) 


	9. 9 Something Weird

9. Something Weird  
  
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Disclaimer: Not mine, blah, blah, blah.  
  
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Well, the girl obviously wasn't waking up.  
  
Severus slowly paced at the end of Ginny's bed, sending her inert form a glare every now and then for good measure, even though it did nothing, seeing as she was asleep.  
  
He paused after a few minutes, and sighed angrily, dropping his head against his palm.  
  
Why did she have to be so bloody bothersome? At every turn, it one thing or another, some new inconvenience, some new nuisance with her.  
  
Hell, if it had the name Potter or Weasley even scarcely connected with it, it had the word 'migraine' written all over it.Severus passed his hand over his eyes, and very warily turned his head to focus on the said troublesome occupant of the huge four poster bed.  
  
Unfortunately, this particular, piercing headache had the hair and face of an angel, and was in possession of a disturbingly shapely body that would doubtlessly haunt him for the rest of his days.  
  
Severus tapped his fingertips absently against his jaw, and then raised them to rake several black strands of hair behind his ear.  
  
Why was he feeling so guilty?  
  
He clenched his teeth, and impatiently swept the trailing ends of his robes from his path before making good his retreat.  
  
He would warn Poppy of the girl's condition and return to his rooms for a small measure of peace before the chaos of the coming days.  
  
**********************  
  
The next morning Severus rose thoroughly unrested from his bed, and for the first time in his life, nearly late for class.  
  
The mirror in his private bathroom snickered appropriately at his rumpled appearance, and he scowled at his reflection.  
  
There were dark circles under his eyes attesting to the fact he had not slept well - he'd been thinking about Ginny, about her condition, and working and reworking measurements in his head for the ingredients he would use for her potion.  
  
He dressed with quick, efficient motions, and made his way out of the dungeons, intent on seeing Ginny's condition for himself before the school day started.  
  
Severus was rounding a corner when hushed voices from inside the D.A.D.A. classroom made him stop in his tracks. He narrowed his eyes, and stopped before reaching the door, carefully remaining out of sight as he listened inquisitively.  
  
**********************  
  
"He did what?"  
  
"I swear, it's true - "  
  
"Only yesterday you were harping on about her and Snape snogging - "  
  
Severus felt his hands fist at his sides. It was more than a bit unsettling to hear his name and the word 'snogging' in the same sentence.  
  
"You saw the look she gave us - And I thought women her age were far beyond blushing."  
  
"She's only barely four years older than us, if that - don't talk about her as if she's ancient. Besides, I thought it was charming - "  
  
"Oh, go on, Ashley - I'm so tired of listening to you go on about Professor Weasley! 'I thought it was charming' - get off it, honestly!"  
  
"Shut up, Jakoby," came a boy's husky mumble.  
  
"Really, Jak, you're just jealous - everyone knows you have a fancy for 'Ol Ash here - "  
  
"Quiet before I'm forced to hex you, Zander!"  
  
"Zander, knock it off - "  
  
"So he was carrying her? No, I flat out refuse to believe it - he could have summoned a stretcher, or used a levitation charm."  
  
Severus felt a snarl cross his lips.  
  
So here was the culprit, the one who'd been spreading rumors - only now the girl had the cheek to start distributing out right lies.  
  
"Not if he was in love with her."  
  
He blinked. The girl needed to be muzzled for saying such hideous things.  
  
"Kayla!"  
  
"Ha! Snape in love? Should I die laughing now, or wait until after dinner? What are we having for dessert tonight?"  
  
"Zander, can you quit thinking about your bloody stomach for one second?"  
  
"Is it my fault I have a fast metabolism?"  
  
"Whatever! Just shut your gob."  
  
"Anyway, he was carrying her to the Infirmary - "  
  
"That's so romantic! Or it would be if it were true!"  
  
"I am so not lying! Why would I?"  
  
"Do I have to remind you, your sister was in Slytherin? Hell, she dated that bleedin' traitor Malfoy - "  
  
"Don't you dare say anything bad about Pansy, Zander Sedley!"  
  
"Yeah, yeah."  
  
"Well, she must have been ill, at any rate - she wasn't awake."  
  
"He probably poisoned her," the boy called Ashley mumbled again.  
  
"Wouldn't put it past the greasy git," agreed the other boy.  
  
'Ten points from Gryffindor for insulting a teacher', Severus thought sourly, immediately making a mental note.  
  
"He did not poison her - honestly, she has some kind of recurring illness, is what I heard - caught something from a Nundu - "  
  
"A Nundu? Sweet Christmas!"  
  
"See? There's no romance going on there - he was just being a typical teacher! Helping out one of his own, as it were."  
  
"Jakoby, you've been here almost seven years - it's time to wake up and smell the Dungbombs, sweet. Snape wouldn't lift a finger to help his own Mum! Something weird is going on. Maybe he's possessed..."  
  
*********************  
  
Severus rolled his eyes at the ridiculous notion. Sedley really ought to be more careful about his words in the future - he'd be losing a veritable load of points for Gryffindor if he didn't.  
  
He was wondering where the hell Ginny was - and if she was often in the habit of allowing her students free reign over their unwise tongues during class.  
  
Furious, he moved forward.  
  
"My, my - you four certainly do have an imagination," he drawled silkily as he made a sudden appearance in the doorway.  
  
The entire class gasped as he stepped inside and speared the four seated near the door with a frigid glare.  
  
The Parkinson girl went white as a sheet, and swallowed audibly.  
  
"Detention, and twenty points from each of your Houses, for spreading gossip - and another ten from you, Sedley. I believe you know why." Severus announced coldly with no small amount of triumph in his voice.  
  
"That's not fair," growled Primmer, making the girl sitting next to him wince. "You can't take points off in Professor Weasley's classroom."  
  
Severus stalked forward in an intimidating manner, and placed his palms flat on the desk as he leaned down to look fiercely at the narrow eyed boy.  
  
The boy unsurprisingly stared back at him defiantly.  
  
"You've just earned another detention for the four of you then, Primmer - and since you are so blatantly disrespecting my authority, you can serve yours with Filch."  
  
The three teens surrounding him exchanged panicked looks.  
  
"Sedley, Parkinson and Barr - you may see Professor Weasley about yours." Severus straightened slowly, and allowed a small smirk to come to his lips as he stared down at the Primmer boy.  
  
"I suggest you all seriously reconsider the wiseness of your actions the next time you set about defaming the character of a teacher - particularly one who, for whatever reason, sees fit to perceive the lot of you as being her 'friends," he said with distaste. "However it is of my opinion that you've been treated with far too light a hand." He rested an icy glare on the Hufflepuff, who went scarlet red in the cheeks and guiltily dropped her eyes.  
  
"Now, until Professor Weasley makes her appearance, open your texts to the chapter you are currently on and read, if by some small miracle you can bring yourselves to manage it. I'll expect you each to have two feet on it ready to turn in to her by the end of class."  
  
A collective groan sounded as he at last exited, but his mind was too preoccupied with getting to his class and setting up another writing assignment so he could visit the Infirmary and see what the hell was going on with Ginny.  
  
*****************  
  
"I'm afraid she won't be on her feet for a few days, Professor Dumbledore,"  
  
Severus entered the Infirmary upon hearing this, and swiftly made his way over to the bed Ginny occupied.  
  
"Hello, Severus," Albus greeted him quietly, his eyes solemn.  
  
"Albus." His eyes swept over the still, feverish form in the bed before him, and he made himself look away.  
  
He felt like a bastard, after the way he'd left her the night before. He'd slept very little, researching the ingredients he'd need for her potion, and alternating between cursing her existence and the nagging worry he felt.  
  
"Professor Weasley's class is becoming a bit undisciplined in her absence, I hear."  
  
Severus tried not to look surprised at the headmasters comment - he shouldn't be, really. Albus always seemed to know everything nearly before it even came to pass.  
  
"Clearly - they've obviously been dealt with too leniently. I've given them a bit of a task. I believe it shall keep them out of trouble for a small matter of minutes."  
  
"I see." Albus clasped his hands, and looked down over his glasses at the girl in the bed.  
  
"You still doubt Miss Weasley's ability to function as a teacher, then?"  
  
Severus looked at Ginny's flushed, freckled cheeks, and crossed his arms. "I doubt her ability to discipline her students properly."  
  
"Yes, yes, of course." Albus paused and looked back up at him. "I've already spoken with her, earlier, about the other evening., I'm sure you'll be pleased to learn."  
  
He forced himself to meet the older man's eyes steadily.  
  
"You understand, Severus, there is certainly no rule against teachers seeing each other after school hours - but I might warn you to use a bit more discretion."  
  
Angry enough to breathe fire, Severus answered only with a short nod. He didn't trust himself enough to dare open his mouth.  
  
"Well, Madam Pomfrey has also informed me of your intention to brew an anti - malarial potion for Ginny?"  
  
Another nod.  
  
"Very well. I'll leave you to it, then. I believe there are some students in need of teaching." Albus winked, and left.  
  
Severus looked down at Ginny unwillingly, cursing himself for having left her the night before with such haste. She'd obviously been more ill than she'd let on.  
  
She shifted slightly in the bed, and mumbled something that sounded like, 'Harry'.  
  
He abruptly turned his back on her as his anger flared, and headed immediately for his classes, wishing he had a drink in hand. Or rather, several.  
  
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To Be Continued. 


	10. 10 The 'Boy' Who Wouldn't Die

Disclaimer: Not mine!  
  
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10. The 'Boy' Who Wouldn't Die  
  
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" - His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad - "  
  
Ginny struggled to wake up - not that she really wanted to, but she had to stop whoever was doing that awful warbling, or her ears would surely start bleeding.  
  
At last her eyes blinked open, and she groaned slightly. Was that stupid poem going to haunt her for the rest of her life?  
  
"A - ha! Knew that would wake you up!"  
  
"Harry?" Ginny frowned, and stared fuzzily up at the dark haired young man standing over her.  
  
"Yeah, it's me. How are you feeling?"  
  
"Well enough to strangle the next person who dares mention your eyes," she muttered threateningly to the 'Boy' Who Lived.  
  
"Point taken! It's good to see you, Gin. It's been too long. I didn't like it."  
  
"I didn't either." Ginny reached out a slightly unsteady hand and squeezed his tightly.  
  
Harry grinned down at her and squeezed back.  
  
"You know, it's very flattering, you still blushing and all when I come around, the famous 'Professor Weasley' - "  
  
"I'm not blushing, it's fever, you git." Ginny muttered blusteringly, fumbling with her blankets. Harry was just her friend, but he did look terribly good looking in his simple black robes.  
  
"Still hiding behind that 'Malaria' excuse, I see," he said teasingly.  
  
"Still spending way too much time with the twins, I see," she shot back rather weakly. Ever since his defeat over Voldemort, Harry had seemed to become intent on living the childhood he'd never had.  
  
"Laughter is good therapy," Harry shrugged.  
  
"Ron should try it," Ginny mumbled.  
  
"He still misses Hermione."  
  
"Who doesn't? She was the only thing that made him act like a sane human being." She paused, and asked, "Is he still insisting on the divorce?"  
  
Harry was quiet for a long moment, and then he smiled. "Last I heard, Hermione had beat him to the punch, and had already sent the necessary papers ahead for him to sign - he was too busy getting pissed to bother talking when I saw him last."  
  
Ginny managed to shake her head. Ron and Hermione had been separated for almost two years, and Ron had always been going on about a divorce - but to her knowledge, he'd been blowing a lot of hot air - he'd never actually had papers drawn up, for all his ranting and raving.  
  
"So, what are you doing here?"  
  
"Ministry stuff - very boring," announced Harry in his gravelly voice.  
  
Ginny nodded sagely, her brown eyes suddenly sharp. "As in 'sorry, Gin, can't tell you anything.'"  
  
"Well, you were the one who chose to put it that way." Harry winked from behind his round glasses.  
  
"Right."  
  
"Wow, never thought I'd have to see this place again." He looked around the Infirmary with a heavy sigh.  
  
Ginny rolled her eyes and relaxed fully against her pillows. "Sometimes I feel like I grew up in here," she commented in commiseration.  
  
"I guess I'll have to be especially quick in getting up and about, now that you're here."  
  
Harry brow wrinkled. "Why's that?"  
  
"I can't have the female students running you to ground, now can I?"  
  
His cheeks turned a ruddy red. "Stop it,"  
  
"That's my humble, unpretentious Harry - modest to the end."  
  
He narrowed his eyes threateningly.  
  
"Speaking of - have you been seeing anyone of interest lately?"  
  
"Ginny - "  
  
"Don't give me that, 'Oh, I've been too busy working,' bit, either!"  
  
"Why is it every time we see each other you suddenly become little Miss Matchmaker?" Harry groaned and looked up at the ceiling.  
  
Ginny hid a grin, and shrugged slightly. "Just be glad you're spending the Holiday's here instead of at the Burrow. Mum was threatening to lock us up in a room together last year, if we each didn't soon find significant others, remember?"  
  
Harry blushed again, and reached up to rub the back of his neck nervously in an endearingly boyish gesture.  
  
"Well, what about you? Have you been seeing anyone?" He asked this defensively.  
  
Ginny snorted. "All I've been doing is 'seeing'," she muttered with a frustrated sigh.  
  
Harry looked at her in confusion.  
  
She waved her hand. "Forget it."  
  
"Well," he said with a slight smile, "I'm sure you'll be happy to know Dumbledore has decided to let yours truly take over your classes for a few days until you are back up and about."  
  
"I thought you had 'Ministry business'," she said, lowering her voice to a gruff, serious tone.  
  
"I'm always available to help a friend."  
  
Ginny laughed at his affected, injured look.  
  
"Well, thanks - but don't go getting too comfortable, Potter. I'm never down for long. I had better warn the others. Next thing you know, you'll be refereeing a Quidditch match."  
  
Harry winked and moved away toward the door. "Hey, not a bad idea, that. It'd give me an excuse to get back out on the old pitch."  
  
"As if you didn't already have over a hundred young reasons just under your nose - the students are going to be begging to see Hogwarts greatest Seeker in action."  
  
He shook his head. He'd been famous nearly from birth, but he never had been comfortable with his celebrity status at all. "Right. Anyway, I have to go - seems some students need teaching how to duel properly this evening."  
  
Ginny groaned. "Didn't Severus tell you he could take care of it? He's been, er - assisting me."  
  
"Severus?" Harry turned around to face her, one brow arched questioningly.  
  
"Don't you dare say a word, Harry Potter! It's a professional courtesy. Everyone calls him that."  
  
"Whatever you say, Professor!" He cut her a stiff salute and abruptly disappeared.  
  
Ginny closed her eyes. "I think I liked him better before he grew up," she mumbled around a yawn.  
  
********************  
  
Snape was in the great hall after dinner that evening, waiting impatiently with a crowd of students when Harry strolled in, purposely a good ten minutes late, his wand clenched between his teeth as he hurriedly clasped the hold on his black robes.  
  
He flashed an unrepentant look at Snape, who seemed to be gnashing his own teeth.  
  
His old professor looked as if he were itching to give him a detention, and take points off - but the man no longer had any power over him, and he knew it.  
  
Itching. Hmm.  
  
Harry found himself trying to conceal a wicked grin as he stepped up onto the dais to address the students.  
  
*******************  
  
Severus had fought side by side with Harry Potter, nearly sacrificed his life for the boy's more than once - but that didn't mean he liked him. Or, even trusted him for that matter.  
  
It didn't help any that he'd been keeping company with the Weasley twins of late, either. Just remembering what those two had put him through made his temples pound.  
  
He watched the energetic young man direct a pair of students, and correct their positions with a suspicious eye.  
  
Potter was in far too good of a mood to be trusted.  
  
*******************  
  
To be continued  
  
A/N: More A.S.A.P., promise! Haven't had a lot of time - sooooooo sorry!!!!! ::looks around nervously for anyone in possession of a hatchet:: : D 


	11. 11 Fred And George Strike Again

10. Fred And George Strike Again  
  
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A/N: Okay, first off - yeah, it's been a long time since I updated. I've been spending my time in seedy motel bars, and therefore have been unavailable to write. : D  
  
I want to apologize for the last chapter - it was short, and really boring - really, really boring. I hated it. Just so you know, I am fully aware it sucked, and I don't really know why I posted it. Oh wait - it was the hatchet thing. ::cough:: Don't you just love pressure and death threats?  
  
Also, if you guys want to get verbally assaulted by our dear old Snapey, I suggest you check out CryingCinderella's 'Ask Snape Anything' fic. It's NC- 17, so be warned. He's a right bastard, let me tell ya. Gotta' luv him.  
  
I'm also apologizing in advance for this chapter - in case you guys haven't noticed, I sometimes have a freakishly extensive vocabulary - I've been accused by my elders of making up words - and I also have a penchant for infrequently used words. Like 'penchant', or 'meritorious', or 'gallimaufry'. ( ? ) Right - anyway, thanks to those of you who have continued to review, and so kindly taken the time to remind me to get off my lazy ass and update. ::sniff:: You truly make life worth living. Sorry if this one isn't up to snuff.  
  
-Key  
  
P.S. If you think I'm weird, thanks for noticing. :D  
  
*******************  
  
Twenty minutes later, Severus found himself wondering at the extent of his own patience.  
  
At any other time, the surplus of stupidity crowded into the Great Hall would have had him mentally tearing at his hair.  
  
He wasn't even sneering.  
  
Yet.  
  
"Enervate!"  
  
Severus bestowed a glare on the two Hufflepuff boys who'd managed to stupefy each other senseless, and watched them drag themselves unsteadily off the floor.  
  
"I suppose we should all be thankful you two at least managed to hit your targets," he snapped, "instead of any innocent bystanders. Have you forgotten what little you have managed to learn, already?"  
  
"Er - Professor? Perhaps another demonstration is in order?"  
  
Severus narrowed his eyes at the familiar voice and slowly turned to look at Harry, who stood in a circle of wide-eyed Gryffindors, absently twirling his wand and looking deceptively innocent.  
  
He gave the younger man a very suspicious once over and then nodded shortly. "Very well, Mr. Potter. Since you're feeling brave."  
  
A wave of snickers came from the Slytherins present.  
  
They took their places, and Severus felt his lip curl slightly as he caught Harry's eye.  
  
Harry, he noticed, did not bother to bow.  
  
He was aware of the crowd of students watching in silent awe. They were obviously sure a battle royal was imminent, and most of them didn't want to miss a chance at seeing their crabby potions professor get knocked on his ass.  
  
Setting his jaw, he stifled a sudden urge to sneer outright and waited impatiently for the count, staring Harry down in an icy, abrasive way that usually set his dueling partners to wincing and looking away.  
  
Potter didn't bat an eyelash.  
  
Severus wasn't surprised at his lack of response to his tried and true intimidation tactics. The boy never had been the type.  
  
He allowed the slightest of smiles to cross his lips, as if he knew something Harry didn't - and that was what threw him, what made the young man blink.  
  
Severus used the small distraction to his advantage and immediately hit Harry with a Confundus charm, which he just as quickly countered.  
  
The brat then tried unsuccessfully, to make use of the tickling curse, Rictusempra, to which he quickly responded with Furnunculus - and again Harry managed to utter the counter curse and escape.  
  
Harry swiftly rebounded with an impressive but immature Densaugeo hex, which was ridiculously easy to counter.  
  
Soon, Severus was tiring of Harry's apparent need to show off. He was about to use Petrificus Totalus when he was momentarily distracted by a suspiciously wild wrist movement of Harry's, at what time, embarrassingly, the younger man managed to successfully strike him with an Itching curse.  
  
Instantly an intolerable crawling began beneath the surface of his skin, and despite his best efforts to retain control over himself, Severus found himself almost bending over back wards to try and assuage the extreme discomfort he felt. He sent a glare at Harry, who was watching his antics with a familiar wide, sparkling grin.  
  
Snarling, Severus gritted his teeth and dug his fingernails into the skin at the base of his neck, as a new torturous itch sprang up.  
  
He heard the crowd of students howling as they watched him practically dance around the dais, and he tightened his jaw, forcing himself to straighten his back and remain still despite the screeching of his nerve endings.  
  
It wasn't often he was the subject of someone's laughter, and the fact that half his students were standing about with the nerve to do exactly that infuriated him.  
  
Potter was going to pay for this.  
  
*************************  
  
Ginny's lingering headache was abruptly forgotten in light of the news she received.  
  
"You did what?"  
  
Harry was still laughing, his green eyes bright, dancing with mirth.  
  
"I used the Itching Curse. It was hysterical - "  
  
Ginny groaned. "Let me guess - you used the tampered with one didn't you? The one Fred and George came up with - "  
  
" - the one that lasts four hours, with no counter. Yes - and did he deserve it, the crusty old - "  
  
"Harry!" Ginny shook her head and sat up in her bed, immediately reaching for her robes.  
  
"Gin! What are you doing?" Looking alarmed, the grin finally dropped form Harry's face, and he put out his hands to stop her. "You can't get up yet - "  
  
Ginny pushed his hands away impatiently, shaking her loose red curls from her eyes as she swept the robes around her and stood shakily. "That was cruel, Harry."  
  
"Ginny, I'm sorry - I didn't know it would upset you so badly! I thought you'd get a laugh out of it - and hey! Speaking of cruel! You were the one who used it on me that time - do you have any idea what it was like for me, itching like that, and thinking I'd have to - "  
  
"By making the poor man look like a fool in front of his students? You should know better, Harry Potter!" Ginny ignored him, and took a few experimental steps forward, her legs trembling beneath her weight.  
  
" - and with my best friends bloody little sister, no less -"  
  
"I mean, he's already surly and completely anti-social! Make it all the more difficult for me, why don't you!"  
  
She ignored his confusion, and then shocked look of understanding that stole across his handsome features before she stopped at the Infirmary doors, snapping at him over her shoulder, " - and he's 'mature', not 'crusty'!"  
  
"Ginny, wait! Tell me you aren't going to do what I think you're going to do!"  
  
Harry sounded positively horrified. He knew very well what she was going to do - she'd been the one to talk her brothers into placing a certain loop - hole in the curse, way back when she'd had fancied him.  
  
"It's none of your business what I'm going to do, Harry - but, you can wish me luck."  
  
Harry's mouth dropped open and she smiled in satisfaction as she pushed through the doors, a determined expression on her pale face.  
  
*******************  
  
Ginny found Severus in his dark dungeon rooms, seeing him for the first time with his robes discarded, trying to scratch his back while cursing the air blue and searching through an endless assortment of potions.  
  
The scene was so uncharacteristic she actually did allow herself a smile before she wiped it away and rapped hard on the doorframe with her knuckles. If she looked too hard at his rumpled appearance, the swath of lean muscle and pale skin his unbuttoned white shirt revealed, she'd never be able to unglue her jaw from the floor.  
  
She watched him spin around to face her, a very unwelcoming expression on his face, his hand working furiously just under the back collar of his shirt.  
  
He looked surprised at seeing her, but only briefly, before he turned back to continue searching among his supplies.  
  
"Why are you out of bed?" He asked in an ill-tempered, impatient voice.  
  
Ginny swallowed as she watched the starkness of his black hair fan across the pure white linen of his loose shirt. He reached for a book on an upper shelf and her mouth went dry at the sight.  
  
Severus Snape had just used the word 'bed' in her presence.  
  
Ginny shook herself and stepped into the large room, which was located just off his office.  
  
"Harry told me about what happened."  
  
He never stopped in his actions long enough to look at her directly. He snorted darkly, and gave his forearm a rough, clearly unsatisfying scratch before pushing his hair behind his ear and turning back the cuffs of his shirt.  
  
Ginny eyed the light sprinkling of soft, dark hair over the strong, corded backs of his hands and forearms, feeling slightly faint.  
  
She cleared her throat and frowned. "What are you looking for? If it's something for the curse, you won't find it - Fred and George made it nearly unbreakable."  
  
"I should have known your two miscreant siblings had a hand in this," Severus snapped fractiously, rubbing the tip of his nose with one knuckle.  
  
Ginny again held back a smile, and walked into the room without waiting for an invitation. She had to sit down. She was feeling much better, but her legs were far from steady, and the dull throb at her temples was making her feel weak.  
  
He turned on her finally as she dropped exhaustedly into a velvety soft looking wingback several feet away, in front of the empty hearth.  
  
"Please, make yourself at home," he said with brittle sarcasm, raising one hand to slip inside his unbuttoned shirtfront.  
  
Ginny looked away from the tempting sight and fumbled in her robe pocket for her wand before she realized she'd left it sitting on her bedside table.  
  
"Do you always keep it so bloody cold and dark in here?" She found herself griping.  
  
"As these are my 'private' rooms, and you are a rather unexpected, and unwelcome, I might add, guest here, I don't see why it should be any of your concern how I choose to keep them," Severus drawled a bit absently, though his deep voice still held it's usual biting sarcasm.  
  
"Well be a decent host to this unwelcome visitor and start a fire, will you? If my teeth chatter any harder I'm going to fall off this chair," she responded, chaffing her upper arms pointedly through her robes.  
  
He made an abrupt growling noise and pointed his wand at the cold hearth.  
  
"Incendio!"  
  
A blazing flare erupted, making Ginny draw back. She sent him a dirty look and curled her knees up to her chest. The chair smelled deliciously of him, and was amazingly comfortable.  
  
"Now, will you kindly tell me why you are still here? Did you come to watch me squirm in discomfort?"  
  
Ginny sighed and rolled her eyes. "I came to help you, you mistrustful git. Luckily for you, I know just how to alleviate the symptoms."  
  
"You must be joking," Severus stated slowly, watching her through his hooded eyes scathingly.  
  
"Oh for God's sake, Snape - you're really a conceited one! Assuming I'm trying to get in your knickers, aren't you?" She laughed at the thoroughly disgruntled expression on his face.  
  
"Can't you go harangue Potter for a bit? I'm sure he wouldn't mind listening to that prattling tongue of yours,"  
  
"The effects are going to last for up to four hours, you know," Ginny said imperturbably. She studied her fingernails and watched him out of the corner of her eye as he scratched the skin under his lean, shadowed jaw vigorously.  
  
"Four hours? I'll be in bloody ribbons by then," he snarled in frustration.  
  
"You have to take a hot bath with a virgin," Ginny commented suddenly, her eyes watching him closely for his reaction.  
  
The large, rather heavy looking book he'd taken into his hands suddenly slipped out of his grasp, and hit one booted foot with an unpleasant thud.  
  
Ginny hugged herself tightly, and laughed so hard she choked. The look on his face!  
  
He voiced some obscure curses and ended with a loud, frustrated growl that wiped Ginny's grin from her face.  
  
He finally seemed to give up, and leaned against the wall, closing his eyes, looking absolutely miserable, and more vulnerable than she'd ever seen him.  
  
She stood up from her seat and walked towards him, and he reopened his eyes to look directly at her. The emotion emanating from the intelligent, piercing black gaze was dark and dangerous.  
  
A soft warmth flooded her chest, and she couldn't pull her stare from his.  
  
Ginny sighed and reached up to slide her fingertips along his jawline. Her heart thudded painfully as he closed his eyes, and seemed to lean into her touch. She felt a smile curve her lips and she used her fingernails to scratch lightly behind his ear.  
  
He moaned slightly, and Ginny grinned. "You're lucky I just happen to be willing."  
  
**************  
  
Severus felt his eyelids snap back open at her words, and he took a quick step away from her, trying to ignore the tormenting, unrelenting itch just below his skin.  
  
Ginny just looked up at him with sleepy, seductive eyes and walked after him.  
  
"I know, it does sound unrealistic, but you know Fred and George - "  
  
"S - stay away from me," Severus began warningly, absently clawing at a vicious itch on his upper thigh.  
  
He saw her reach out a hand, and took a hasty step back, and walked through the door, into his office.  
  
"Severus - "  
  
He swiftly put his desk between them, shaking his head. "There's no way in hell! I'll bloody stand here and scrape myself raw before - " He was cut off by Ginny, who somehow managed to dive across the desk and attach her mouth to his.  
  
Instantly he felt the odd irritation beneath his skin fade significantly. He sighed in relief, and then pushed her away as he realized what he was doing.  
  
"I insist you cease this!"  
  
Ginny dropped her arms and had the cheek to run a finger down the center of his heaving, bared chest.  
  
"I'll meet you in the bathroom in five minutes," she said huskily, licking her lips.  
  
He felt his heart skip a beat, and he stared at her in fascinated horror.  
  
"For goodness sake, Severus, was only teasing. It only has to be a hot bath 'drawn' by a virgin. My brothers aren't so mean," Ginny finally sighed in exasperation, pulling away from him. "Besides, do I really look like I'm in any shape to seduce you?"  
  
Severus swallowed inaudibly and allowed his eyes to drop to the front of his trousers momentarily as she walked away towards his bathroom.  
  
"God, yes."  
  
*****************  
  
To Be Continued  
  
A/N: Update A.S.A.P. guys! Sorry again! THANK YOU!  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
"Meritorious." "Gallimaufry - mixture. Mendacious Mettle Missappropriate Miscellany Noxious Ordeal Oration perplex ravenous jaded zealot 


	12. 12 Infatuation

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Disclaimer: Not mine! : D

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A/N: 'R' rating on this chapter, guys. You've been warned. You'll see why. : D

************

12. Infatuation

************

_Life was an evil, sadistic, deceitful bitch.****_

Severus took a deep, snarling breath and willed his body to calm.

He heard the water start in the bathroom and stifled a groan.

Ginny was a virgin.

The sudden thought that she had possibly been saving herself for him, that no other had touched her, made him uncomfortable in ways he'd be better off not thinking on.

He scowled, and again scratched behind his ear – the itching was more tolerable now, but it still made him exceedingly uncomfortable.

Ginny.

Damn her, anyway. What was she thinking? She was older, yes, but still far too young for him. She always would be – and besides, he wasn't interested in all the intricacies that no doubt came along with her. Her large family, her troublesome brothers, Potter, marriage, squalling, annoying children, undying faithfulness, responsibility –

It gave him a bloody migraine, and the very thought of it would have been enough to send any other man screaming.

Severus massaged the back of his aching neck, and the knot threatening to form there. He turned to look down the short hall where she'd disappeared into the bathroom.

He had to get her the hell out of there before he did something they'd both regret, because he didn't think that Ginny Weasley was the sort to give herself without strings attached.

***************

Ginny waited until the bath was nearly full of hot, steaming water before she turned to see Severus leaning against the doorjamb, his usually cold black eyes watching her with burning intent.

He reached up to absently scratch at the center of his lightly furred chest, and her mouth began to water as she glimpsed a flat male nipple.

"Er – here it is – just, uh…just get in whenever you want," she said, swallowing hard. "I'll just be going now…"

She could have slapped herself. _'Coward'_, she thought. 'You've got him right where you want him, and you're the one shying away? What's wrong with you! You may never get this chance again!'

Ginny drew back her shoulders. 'Right,' she told herself. 'You have to learn to lead your way – '

Severus straightened up, crossing his arms, blocking the doorway.

Her newly gathered confidence suddenly dropped to her toes and dissolved in the face of his impending verbal lashing.

"You know…it occurs to me, you've been torturing me ever since you arrived," he drawled with soft menace.

Ginny felt her heart beat pick up in alarm. "Severus – "

He lowered his hands slowly and began to finish unbuttoning the rest of his high collared white shirt.

Ginny stared nervously, biting her lower lip as he carelessly shrugged the shirt off his shoulders, allowing it to drop around his elbows.

Her eyes strayed to where his lean, long fingered hands were resting at the waistband of his black trousers.

"Perhaps it's time I repaid some of your _kindness_," he continued in a deceptively silky voice.

Ginny fisted her trembling hands and took a reflexive step back – he kept his eyes on hers, and flicked open the top button effortlessly.

She almost fainted. What was he _doing_?                                                     

He opened the next button, and she took yet another step back, _again_ lost her balance, and fell, arms still wind milling desperately – right into the tub.

Splashing around, Ginny emerged from the deep, steaming hot water with a gasping sputter.

She raked her sopping red hair out of her face, and looked up at him with wide eyes.

Severus stood over the bath, now shirtless, his lean muscled arms crossed, his trousers resting alarmingly low on his narrow hips.

He arched a brow at her as she watched, unaware that her mouth was gaping open.

"I believe you said that I was the one who had to have the bath," he drawled again, his eyes glinting wickedly.

Ginny almost could have sworn she saw a flicker of dark humor there. She cleared her throat, and tossed back her sodden curls.

"Well, it isn't as if there isn't room for two in here," she heard herself say absently as she stared back at him.

She felt her cheeks begin to flame suddenly, and she snapped her mouth shut.

"So this is your idea of seduction? Sitting fully clothed in a pool of hot water?" He asked coolly, and reached up to lightly scratch his jaw.

Ginny frowned indignantly, knowing she was being mocked, and pulled herself up to her feet, her robes feeling as if they weighed a ton from all the water they'd absorbed.

"I wasn't trying to _seduce_ you, for heaven's sake! I look like something a Kneazle dragged in, and you're gadding about scratching like a dog with bloody fleas!" She stepped out of the bath, robes dragging, and glared at him.

Looking very insulted, Severus dropped his hand and glared back so fiercely she gulped and started to step around him.

In one, quick, smooth movement, he blocked her path.

'Oh lord…' 

Ginny watched him place his hands on his hips, and took a step backwards – he followed. She took another – and he said in a voice as soft as tattered velvet, "Careful – or do you want to take a header into the bath again?"

Ginny stopped and bit the inside of her cheek. "Severus, really – I – I should get back to the Infirmary – I - I'm really not feeling well," she lied weakly, inwardly cursing herself for stumbling over her words.

"You're obviously feeling well enough to be coming down here to torment me," he commented quietly.

She looked up him hesitantly, and then swiftly sidestepped him. "Really – torment you – I do have some ethics you know – "

"Ethics," he sneered, his voice following her out into the short hallway. "I should have known _you _would start spouting off about _ethics_,"

Ginny paused, unsure as to which way to take as she heard him grumble under his breath and finish undressing behind her – a moment later she heard a soft splash and a low groan as he lowered himself into the water. She caught herself nearly turning around to watch.

"I'm sure you can show yourself out," he called, still sounding impossibly moody. There were a few more quick splashes, and then the sounds of him rising.

She panicked and turned left, and realized her mistake within a few short steps.

Her breath caught in her chest at the sight of the largest four tester bed she'd ever seen in her entire life.

This was his _bedroom_!

Ginny felt her jaw drop as she stared at the massive bed. The room was spacious, the ceiling high and arched, but the bloody bed took up nearly half the place!

It was nearly full dark in the room, with only the light from the living area down the hall filtering in, but she could see the simple, but magnificent Celtic knot carvings in the dark, gleaming wood of the testers, and the sinfully decadent looking black velvet coverlet thrown across the rumpled, unmade bed. 

"Now that you've completely invaded my privacy…" a cool voice came from behind her.

Unable to prevent a startled squeak from escaping, she whirled to face the shadowy form standing behind her.

"Er – sorry, I didn't realize where I was going – "

"That much is apparent – you don't need to point out your inabilities, Professor. I am already quite familiar with them," he said acidly.

After a long moment, in which she noticed he stood before her in unbuttoned trousers and his loose, gaping open white shirt, which clung slightly to his damp skin, she stuttered, "Well, m – maybe if you didn't keep it so blasted dark in here – "

"I like it dark," he murmured softly in a way that made her skin tingle.

She couldn't really see his expression in the shadows, with the dim light coming from behind him, but she could see that his hair was still wet and hanging in his eyes.

"Oh – er…did the bath work?"

He nodded faintly, still staring at her.

She shivered, feeling cold suddenly, and finally realized she was dripping water all over the large, antique carpet on the stone floor. "Oh – sorry!" She moved forward, intent on leaving, but he grabbed her arm, turning to face her in the inconstant light.

"Ginny,"

She dropped her head, too shy suddenly to look at him

"I realize…that there is an – a certain attraction between us…"

'- and here comes the 'but'," Ginny thought with an inward grumble.

"Surely you understand, I'm far too old for you – "

"Oh yes, you're positively _ancient_," she muttered under her breath.

" – and though I'd like nothing more than to take you to that bed and keep you there, it wouldn't mean anything. Not to me, and I'm fairly certain you don't want that – "

Ginny swallowed at his words, the imagery in her mind making her weak with wanting.

"How do you know what I want?" She snapped suddenly, raising her head to glare at him. "How do you know I wouldn't be happy with just one night with you, and _screw the consequences?"_

Severus stiffened visibly, an odd light coming into his hard eyes. "I am beyond tired of having words with you, Ginny. Don't you understand? If we do this, it will destroy you, your emotions, and your outlook on the world. You're far more innocent than you think, and when the sun comes up and I'm no longer here, you'll hate yourself. That's all it would be between us – one night." He raised a hand to absently rub his temple, and then closed his eyes breifly with a rough sigh. 

"You think you are in love with me, but you are, in truth, in love with the idea of being in love. I don't claim to understand it, why you chose me, but it cannot happen. You're still in the grip of some – some bloody adolescent infatuation. You'll regret it as soon as it happens, and it's not in my nature to act the reassuring type."

"Why do always speak to me as if you hate me?" She asked wonderingly, tears brimming in her eyes.

He narrowed his eyes as his lips pressed together hard. "I don't care enough about you to hate you," he said finally.

"_Liar! _If you didn't care, you wouldn't have a second thought in your head about doing me over on that bed right now!" Ginny exclaimed crudely, watching his eyebrows arch.

"Maybe you aren't as innocent as I thought," he said cruelly.

"What are you talking about?" She asked, incensed. "You know very well I'm a-a virgin!"

He looked her over insultingly. "There are other ways," he said in a near whisper.

Ginny trembled. She stared up at him and saw the muscle in his jaw ticking, and recognized the strained look in his eyes. 

"Another of your headaches?" She asked him in concern. He looked so tired, and yet so beautiful it made her heart ache.

He cursed and walked past her, lowering himself onto the bed with the careful movements of one familiar with painful migraines.

As she watched, he dropped one hand to scrabble around in the darkness on the floor beside the bed and he came up with a bottle.

As he uncorked the bottle, the not unpleasant smell of whiskey permeated the room, and Ginny sighed.

"Don't give me that look," Severus snapped from the shadows, and took a long pull from the bottle before resting it on the mattress beside his hip, his hand still curled around it possessively. "Nothing else works, not that it's any of your bloody business."

"Well, I can't see how it helps," she muttered, crossing her arms. It was cold and drafty in the room, and the fact that she was soaking wet didn't help.

"For God's sake, go away," he groaned, allowing his head to fall back onto his pillows. "You can finish scolding me later. Tomorrow is soon enough."

"I can't leave you – you're hurting," she protested, taking several impulsive steps forward.

"I left you," he said flatly from the darkness, the deep timbre of his voice reverberating in her chest slightly.

Ginny shook her head, and then spied a long black bathrobe laying in a pool in the shadows on the floor at the foot of the bed.

She took a deep breath, and lifted her hands to the catch of her robes.

"What do you think you're doing?" Severus growled.

"It's freezing in here – I'm getting out of these wet things," she said stubbornly. "Turn your head if you don't want to see, you domineering tyrant," she added crossly.

He snorted. "How long did it take you to come up with that? It's hardly impressive - I've been called worse, you know." He didn't turn his head.

Ginny nearly quailed under his unabashedly watchful gaze, but forced her shaking fingers to finish the job of unbuttoning the catches down her front. She closed her eyes and shrugged the robes off, and then the wet pajama's beneath.

She heard his breath catch, and then looked to catch him staring at her nude curves with eyes fairly flaming with avarice.

Ginny swiftly retrieved the robe from the floor, her cheeks reddening as she awarded him with a full view of her backside. She straightened up, trying to look as calm as possible, and dragged the far too large robe around herself, having to belt the thing twice around her waist. The hem dragged on the floor as she cautiously moved towards him, breathing in the familiar sunny scent that surrounded her from the soft fabric.

"Ginny, leave," he demanded in an edgy voice. "God, if you know what's good for you – "

"Shut up, Snape," Ginny said conversationally as she stood on tip toe to drag one hip onto the side of the huge bed. She arranged the long robe around her bare legs, and looked him right in the eye. "You have no idea how many times I've wanted to say that."

Severus wasn't listening. The whiskey lay forgotten near his hip, and his hands were fisted at his sides.

"Roll over," Ginny commanded imperiously, dispatching the bottle.

"What?"

"I said, _'roll over'_. Now," she added, prodding his lean side with her fingertip.

"No. Go away – "

_"Now!"_ She said sharply, in the tone she reserved for training stubborn beasts in the field.

He finally relented and turned onto his stomach, muttering a less than flattering curse about her.

Ginny shook her head at his obstinacy, and her own bravery, and then dragged herself over to sit on his lower back. He jumped in surprise.

"What the hell – " 

"Relax – I'm not taking advantage of you, Severus." She reached up to rub her tired eyes, and then shook out her fingers, alternately tensing and relaxing them. She rubbed her palms together, and then leaned forward slightly, resting her thumbs at the base of his neck.

He hissed as she began working at the knot in the muscles there, but gradually relaxed as her hands smoothed warmly along his skin.

She smiled when she succeeded in getting a rough groan out of him a few minutes later.

She left his neck when the muscled finally relaxed, and began sweeping her hands down his back, beneath his soft white shirt, pausing near his shoulder blades to deeply massage, and then she worked her way down his spine to the small of his back.

Ginny scooted back slightly to accommodate the movements of her hands, becoming aware of a distinct throb between her thighs. She bit her lip against the aching sensation, and forced herself to concentrate on the task at hand.

After a few more minutes, her hands began to get tired, so she stopped, and leaned forward on him slightly to speak in his ear. He had his face nearly buried in his pillow, and he was breathing very slow and ragged.

"Feel better?" She asked, innocently resting her cheek on his shoulder, feeling both sleepy and oddly frustrated.

He sighed, his arrogant voice sounding muffled and breathless. _"You should have left when you had the chance."_

A chill went up her spine, and she stared at the damp inky strands of hair falling across his pillow.

"Severus…" she trailed off, running a hand absently through the warm hair at his nape, not quite sure what to say.

He turned on her suddenly, and she gasped as he rolled her beneath him.

Apparently the fire in the living room had been slowly dying, and even now, it sputtered out weakly, leaving them in pitch black silence.

The complete darkness seemed to wake something inside of them both, seemed to allow them act on their long pent up feelings.

Severus breathed something into her ear, and she buried her hands in his silky long hair.

"Please…"

"This – is not a good idea," he muttered harshly. "Ginny, I'm old enough to be – "

"I know. So what?" She asked challengingly. "Severus, when you kiss me, touch me - even when you simply look at me, your age is the last thing on my mind." She lifted her hand to touch his face and whispered, "Tell me you were thinking about age when we kissed before."

"No – you don't know what you're saying – "

"I know – I know I want you, I love you – I know that I'm attracted to you." Her fingertips found his lips. "I know I want you to touch me. Don't you want me?"

"Stop it," he ordered hoarsely, catching her hand. "Jesus, Ginny – do you think I'm made of ice? I've dreamt about you, about how you would look this way, for weeks…you _know_ I want you."

"Then shut up and kiss me." She told him in frustration. She could sense it rising in him too, the frustrated anger – she could just imagine what his expression would look like. "Don't stop, Severus – please."

"You don't understand. Things won't ever be the same – "

"I don't care!"

"Fine," he snarled at last. "Just remember, you asked for it."

For a moment it seemed as if he hesitated, and then, making a kind of growl deep in his throat, he leaned over and his mouth came down on hers with a long, punishing open-mouthed kiss. His rough cheek rasped against hers, and she realized this was a _man_ kissing her. Far different from those soft, hesitant kisses she'd received from Harry in his angst ridden seventh year, and the wet, clumsy, somewhat drunken one Seamus had given her one Christmas while visiting the Burrow - this kiss was different, too, even from the other he'd given her on the cliff. This was the kiss of a man intent, the kiss of a man with one thing on his mind, full of unrestrained feelings, and it stole her breath away, made her heart still at how perfect it was. He was beautiful – even his kiss was beautiful…

She ran her hands down to his shoulders, down his lean sides, to rest on the waist of his trousers. Nothing in her life had ever made her happier or felt so right to her as being held in his arms. Although she wasn't certain how it had all come about, she could think on it later. Right now, she wanted him, all of him, and she was more than willing to give him whatever he wanted…

**************

To Be Continued

**************

A/N: Okies – the end of this chapter has been re-written – I think it's a bit of an improvement. Onto the dreaded chapter thirteen!


	13. 13 The Dreaded Chapter Thirteen!

13. The Dreaded Chapter Thirteen!

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Disclaimer: I own nothing!

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A/N: Shame, shame. Where have I been? Hiding at the bottom of a well? Narrowly escaping the grasp of a 'naked' stalker? ::heh:: Nope. I've been waiting for inspiration…yeah, that sounds good. Thanks to all of you who reviewed last chapter, and gave me your opinions on where this should go. I'll tell you right now, I'm probably not the best at writing this 'luv' stuff ::snort:: but I gave it a try – hence the new 'R' rating, to be safe. Hope it's…interesting.

*********************

The ache was growing, growing into something that was frighteningly beyond his control.

Severus felt Ginny melt beneath him, felt her fingers tighten in his hair, and heard her soft gasp in the black silence as he opened his lips over her chilled skin. He closed his eyes, knowing that what he was doing was wrong, that it could only lead to trouble – but for once he didn't give a damn.

She whispered his name in a way that had his breath coming fast and irregular, and his hands clutching her softly rounded hips in an effort to still her restless movements against him. It had been too long, far too long, since he'd held a woman this way, and if she kept it up, he'd completely lose control.

Then too, was the knowledge that he felt more for this particular woman than he'd ever felt for any other. He could admit it here, in the darkness, feeling her skin slowly heat beneath the touch of his, the rough velvet texture of the coverlet brushing against his overly sensitized body until it was an agony not to feel every bare inch of her pressed against him.

He kissed his way back up her body, feeling her tense beneath him as he ran one hand up the inside of her trembling thigh and hooked one hand behind her knee. He settled himself between her legs, and caught her lips in a long, seductive kiss that had her nails biting into his taut shoulders.

"Don't  be frightened," he murmured to her at last, pressing kisses to the sensitive column of her slender throat. He shrugged out of his shirt, and tossed it over his head.

"I-I'm not," she told him on a low moan, and when he made as if to lift himself from her, locked her warm, slender thighs around his lean waist. "Wait - don't stop!"

"I don't think I could stop now even if you wanted me to," he confessed in a throaty drawl, pressing himself against her firmly, so she knew just what his intentions were.

"I swear I'll murder you if you do." Her fingers absently, nervously massaged his shoulders.

He smiled slightly against her neck, feeling her shiver. "This may prove to be a bit difficult to accomplish with my trousers in the way," he felt moved to point out.

The kneading movement of her fingers stopped, and she dropped her legs with an embarrassed sounding, "Oh."

He slid down her body, listening to her breath catch as his warm, furred chest brushed along the sensitive points of her breasts, and then he skillfully removed the last barrier of fabric between them.

"Severus, now…please don't make me wait any longer," Ginny pleaded huskily in the darkness. "I can't stand it – "

"Slowly," he whispered into her ear softly, reaching to entwine his fingers with hers against the sheets. 

"Slowly later," she said insistently, turning her head to catch his mouth with hers. "I need you now." Her fingers tightened around his, and her tongue innocently brushed his lower lip. "I need you."

"Well…if you must insist…" 

He slipped his hand down between their bodies, and touched her tender flesh softly, catching her sudden, broken little cries with his lips. "Tell me you love me, Ginny. Tell me again, just this once - let me hear you say it…"

"I'll tell you it every day if you'll let me," she breathed, arching against him with an impatient sound. 

He didn't answer, didn't allow himself to think beyond her, or that moment…he only increased the pressure of his stroking fingers and gently but persistently pushed himself forward, sinking into her tight, silken heat inch by precious inch. His head dropped into the curve of her shoulder, and his arms trembled as he held his full weight away from her.

"Tell me, Ginny."

Her breath caught on a moan as he slowly rocked against her, easing his path."I love you, Severus. I'll always love you…"

**********************

She wasn't ready to wake up yet, but something was nagging at her, worrying there, just at the edge of her consciousness.

The first thing Ginny noticed when she dared to opened one bleary, tired eye, was that she was not in the Infirmary.

The bed she lay in was not her lumpy cot in the hospital wing – she knew this because, to her knowledge, Poppy Pomfrey had never placed exquisitely embroidered black velvet coverlets on the beds.

 Instinctively she swept a hand across the mattress beside her and was promptly rewarded with chill emptiness. Despair pulled at her heart, and she rolled over onto her side, pushing her face against a plump pillow infused with the unlikely scent of  sunshine.

The room was utterly silent, and her instinct told her Severus was _long_ gone.

Ginny clenched her eyes shut tightly for a moment, willing herself not to be disappointed, and then sat up in the bed, wincing slightly as she felt a twinge in the muscles of her thighs, and an unfamiliar tenderness.

That was when she noticed the small vial of clear liquid standing on the bedside table, along with a glass of water and a hastily scrawled note.

She picked up the small piece of parchment, her stomach twisting itself into knots. She took a deep, calming breath, blinking away sleep as she tried to focus, and read.

_Ginny – _

_Here is the new treatment I promised you – dose yourself as usual. I think you will find it much more effective. The water itself contains a pain killer – it will soothe any aches you may be experiencing._

                                                                                                                      ~ S.S.

The parchment disintegrated with a soft poof in her hands as she finished reading the carefully impersonal note.

That was all? No, 'Hello, I do hope you're all right', no, 'darling, you were wonderful'? Not even a, 'Hey, you were ruddy _great_, let's get together and make the beast with two backs again some time'?

Ginny sighed. In his defense, he had warned her, after all. He'd said it himself, that he wouldn't be there when she woke up. Plus, it was asking too much to hear an endearment or two come from his lips – even after the night they'd shared. She found herself thinking back on it, remembering her loss of control with flaming cheeks.

Her hand shook as she reached for the glass beside her, and she gulped at the liquid thirstily. True to his note, the feelings of soreness and the discomfort of unused muscles faded quickly.

Feeling better, at least physically, Ginny searched out her damp pajamas and cloak, and quickly decided to make herself scarce – she'd die of embarrassment if she ran into him just now, after all the things she'd said, all the things she'd done…but she honestly couldn't bring herself to regret a moment of it.

Later. She needed time to sort things out, and to guard herself against the defensive, inevitable backlash from Severus. There was very little doubt in her mind that things were about to get extremely ugly.

Ginny found herself turning back at the entrance to the bedroom, despite herself. Her gaze landed on a familiar white shirt thrown across the end of the bed, and she closed her eyes for a moment, rewarded with a glimpse of a memory…disdainful, endlessly black eyes half-hidden by damp strands of silky dark hair…what wouldn't she give to just have him embrace her for a just a minute longer, as he had last night…

Tears burned at the backs of her eyes, and she felt her throat close.

A clock from one of the quiet rooms down the hall rang out suddenly, announcing the hour, startling her and making her reach instinctively for her wand, which of course was still up in the hospital wing.

Feeling tremendously worn, she turned away from warm invitation of the rumpled tester bed and made her way from the too silent rooms, mindful of any watchful eyes. 

Yes…later would be soon enough.

*********************

"Good morning, Severus. I trust you had a – memorable evening."

Severus threw a dark look at a smug looking Minerva McGonagall, who seemed to have reappeared again overnight. Interestingly enough, Bertie Dumbledore seemed to have up and disappeared.

"It was…uneventful," he lied easily enough, suspicion rearing its head. "And your _trip_ – I trust you tied up your _business_?"

The older woman pursed her lips and eyed him slyly over the tops of her square spectacles. "I would say so – unfortunately I have yet to see if my efforts proved to be _completely_ successful."

Severus narrowed his eyes into slits as he regarded her in slowly building fury. "Just who do you think you're fooling, Minerva?" he hissed. "Or should I call you _Bertie_? Just what were you trying to prove, deceiving me in that manner?"

"Perhaps the fact that there is blood running in those veins of yours instead of ice water," the Transfigurations teacher commented unrepentantly.

"Snape, if you weren't acting like such a right bastard I'd almost say you've the look of a man who just got laid," a familiar, much hated voice sounded lowly near his ear.

A hand clapped him roughly on the shoulder, and Severus, summoning up every last bit of icy control he possessed, turned to see Sirius Black smirking at him unrepentantly.

"Who had the exceptionally appalling lack of judgment to allow you back in here, Black?" he snarled nastily, clenching his fist.

"Ahem – that would be me, Severus," Albus Dumbledore announced solemnly around his goblet from down the table, with a hint of amusement coloring his voice.

"Good old Snape – always could count on you to drop one hell of a clanger," Sirius chuckled, and then the man had the presumptuousness to drop his worthless arse into Ginny's chair!

Ginny – just the thought of her sent renewed fury to the snarl twisting his lips. She'd been right about one thing, he'd discovered when he'd lain awake beside her early that morning, waiting for the dawn. She _had_ made him feel – he never had forgiven her for it. And now…

"How did you come here?" He broke out of his reverie with a frustrated growl.

"On my legs, how do you think?" Sirius told him cheekily, his dark eyes twinkling in rare good humor. He popped a handful of plump white grapes into his mouth and began chewing enthusiastically. "Come on, Snape – it's nearly Christmas. Let's cry pax, shall we?"

"Oh, yes, let's – and then where will I be when that damnable luck of yours rears it's ugly head and lands the whole of the school in yet 'another' life endangering adventure?"

"I beg your pardon," Sirius said indignantly, "I had nothing to do with any of the past occurrences that happened around here when I was conveniently present. Its coincidence, pure coincidence is what it was – "

"You mean to tell me that after all these years, you still think that your propensity for disaster is completely unintentional?" Severus looked at the other man in disgust and then returned his attention to McGonagall. "I'm sorry to inform **you,**_ madam_, that your little attempt at matchmaking has yielded nothing."

"Matchmaking? With who? Who could be that unfortunate -" Sirius leaned forward interestedly, and Severus could almost see his ears perking.

"Sod off. It's none of your business, Black – " he began heatedly, only to cut himself off as he caught a glimpse of long red curls out  the corner of his eye. He turned despite his best efforts, and felt the sight of Ginny entering the great hall hit him as a blow to the stomach.

Sirius gave a low wolf whistle from beside him, and then cleared his throat. "Hell, that's the most unlikely pairing _I've_ ever seen."

Severus jerked his head around to glare down his nose at the animagi. "What are you on about?"

"It's obvious, isn't it? You and her – that saucy looking redhead – you've been doing the bad thing, eh? It's about ruddy time, I have to say." Sirius shook his shaggy dark head and grinned lopsidedly. "Don't know what she sees in you, though, Snape."

Dark brows snapped together in a threatening frown. "There's nothing going on between professor Weasley and I," he informed him with quiet menace.

"Liar." Sirius replied, apparently unconcerned. "Wait. Weasley, eh?" He looked thoughtful for a moment, and then exclaimed, "Not _Ginny_ Weasley? _That's _Ginny Weasley?" Sirius sat forward in his chair as the curvaceous little redhead approached, his dark eyes regarding her with growing awareness. "Did she grow up right! Picking 'em a bit young though, aren't you Snape? Not that I can blame you – she's a dish."

"Kindly shut up, Black. Stop talking about things you have no idea about. You're wasting the oxygen." Severus studiously avoided Ginny's warm gaze as she drew nearer, and determinedly picked up his coffee. "You're welcome to her."

"I always knew you were dim in ways, Snape, but I never thought of you as being just outright stupid. It's faint – but your bloody scent is all over that girl. If she doesn't belong to you, then my name isn't Sirius Black," the other man muttered knowingly in his ear, and he clapped another hand on his suddenly stiff shoulder before standing to greet Ginny and hand her into her seat.

"Ah, Ginny – feeling better this morning, I see," Albus commented as Sirius released her hand.

"Much, thank you," she answered softly, though the cheeriness of her reply sounded very forced to Severus's trained ear. "It's good to see you back, Minerva. Are you well?"

"Very. And you?"

"Er…well, I'm fine," Ginny began, "Professor Snape kindly lent his services to me last evening, and without his particular – _talent,_ I fear I would have been much longer in recovering from my illness," she finished sweetly.

Sirius, who'd just taken a seat down from them, next to a silent, slightly nauseous looking Harry Potter, made a disbelieving choking noise.

Severus nearly dropped his coffee before he recovered himself and turned his eyes on her fiercely, making sure she knew he did _not_ appreciate her cheek. "That particular _potion_," he stressed, "was actually quite simple to create. I'm – pleased to see you in such great spirits this morning, professor."

"How could I not be?" she asked him with a grin, her brown eyes twinkling.

Minerva McGonagall coughed delicately, and turned away pointedly to engage the chuckling headmaster in conversation.

Ginny was _teasing_ him! He stared at her flushed cheeks, and slightly bruised lips, and actually took pride for a moment, in knowing that he had been the one to put such life into her expression.

"E-excuse me, professor?"

Severus tore his attention away from Ginny's lovely face with an intolerant scowl.

Ashley Primmer stood before him, other side of the table, along with a cowed looking Kayla Parkinson. The Sedley brat and Jakoby Barr stopped behind them.

"What do you want, _boy_?" He was in no mood to deal with Ginny's love struck follower. What he really wanted to do was line Albus and Minerva up for some painful hexing!

"We wanted to apologize to Professor Weasley, sir."

Ginny leaned forward, a questioning frown on her face. "Apologize?"

Ashley cleared his throat, and elbowed Kayla, who turned bright red in the face took a stumbling step forward.

"Er – I'm really sorry, professor," the flustered girl began sincerely. "I-I really mucked things up. See, I was the one who started all those rumors about you and Professor Snape, but I wasn't trying to cause any harm, honestly."

Severus made a caustic sound of disbelief. 

"I guess I just…liked having everyone's attention," Kayla finished miserably. "I'm sorry that I made you feel badly, especially with you being ill and all." She looked up at him and bit her lip. "You were right Professor Snape."

He straightened in his seat uncomfortably as he felt Ginny's gaze rest on him momentarily. He wanted the brat to shut up, but his usual silencing glare was alarmingly unsuccessful at doing this.

"We just want you to know, we think you're a really excellent teacher, professor," Jakoby spoke up, her voice earnest. 

"Yeah, and the whole no homework thing really rocks," Sedley added with his usual lack of tact.

"We're really glad you're feeling better," Ashley said quickly, before pushing his glasses up on his nose and dragging his friends away.

"It's almost too bad you know," Sedley's mournful voice drifted back. "I _was_ looking forward to Harry again today."

"And just where do _you_ get off calling him Harry, Zander?"

"What are you talking about, Jak? We're like _this_!"

"He shakes Harry Potter's hand _one_ time and see what happens?"

"You're just jealous…"

A hand settled on his sleeve, and he turned his attention back to Ginny. 

"What was all that about? Did you talk to them?" She wrinkled her nose. "You gave them all detention, didn't you?"

"If you could have heard the nonsense they were spouting you'd have given them detention as well," he muttered crossly, giving the small hand on his black sleeve a pointed look. He stood up, and without another word, exited the hall.

A series of small patters on the stones behind him told him Ginny was on his heels, and he stopped with an impatient growl.

She stepped around to stand in front of him, blocking his way. "I know what you're thinking, Severus."

His eyes leapt up to hers. "Strangely I do not wonder at your assumption – pray, tell me just what it is I am thinking, Miss Weasley."

"It's not over between us. We're not through. I know how you really feel about me, and you're only acting this way because you're _afraid_ to feel – "

All at once his patience snapped. He rose slowly to his full height, until he loomed over her like a great dark shadow.

"Thank you for judging me so graciously, professor – but I'll ask you not to presume to know _anything_ about me. As you seem unable to separate fact from fiction in that doubtless _brilliant_ mind of yours, I'll take this opportunity to correct you on a few things. I did not encourage you to shower me with your affections, nor did I ask to be analyzed. I did not profess my undying love and I did not make you any promises. You say I have 'feelings' for you – well, if you do have a brain in that head of yours, it cannot much avail you, or you would have known by now that my actions and my words are not those of a man who cares. Now, I have a class to get to, with your permission," he finished sneeringly, and turned away, ignoring the stricken look on her face.

She was deadly wrong, he thought to himself furiously as he made his way down into the dimly lit depths of the castle. It _was_ over. It was _more_ than over between them.

**************************

"I never thought you'd be such a coward as to run."

Ginny paused in her whirlwind movements and shot a weary, red-eyed glance at the doorway of her bedroom. She couldn't talk. It was late evening, and she had to get moving or else she'd miss the train from Hogsmeade to her dissapparating point.

"Go away, Harry. I'm not in the mood to talk right now," she said tonelessly, throwing her dress robes carelessly into her worn trunk.

"You can't just leave. Ginny, I'm not blind – I know what…must have happened last night." His voice turned severe. "Did he hurt you? I'll - "

Ginny shook her head violently. "No. He didn't do anything I didn't want him to, Harry." She stopped again, and turned fully to face him. "I'm in love with him. He doesn't feel the same –he won't – I finally realized it. He wants me, but he doesn't 'love' me. I don't know what made me think he could.  I just – I can't stay here any longer, Harry. I can't look at him every day and know…he doesn't -" she covered her aching eyes with one unsteady hand. "I have to go."

"You love it, here, Ginny. Teaching at Hogwarts is all I've ever heard you talk about since you left  school – "

_"Because of him!"_ Ginny shouted, her voice breaking. She dropped her hand and shook her head at him as her eyes filled with hot tears. "I wanted to teach here because of _him_, all right? I - everything I've done, everywhere I've gone, I did it because I wanted to be worthy of _him! I wanted his approval, and I'll never get it!  _I wanted to be near him!  Thought – I thought if I could impress him, if I could make a name for myself, show him I was more than clumsy little Ginny Weasley, he might come to care for me. " Her face red, her hair wild and disheveled, she slammed the trunk lid closed, and snatched up her wand, her entire body trembling. She pulled her heavy traveling cloak tight around her shoulders, and pulled her hair out from beneath the collar.

Harry stared at her, green eyes wide. "I …before last night, I never knew! I mean, I never even suspected – "

"Who would have, really?" Ginny bit her lip, and then smiled tremulously. "It's ridiculous, isn't it? The very thought! _Me_ and Severus Snape…"

"Don't go, Ginny," Harry said pleadingly. "I'm worried about you – where will you go? The students – they'll miss you terribly – "

"Oh, Harry." She looked at the distressed young man with a shaky shrug. "They've barely gotten used to me. No one will be heart-broken over the fact that I'm leaving. This – it just wasn't meant to be. There's no point in my staying, now. The whole reason…don't get me wrong, I love Hogwarts – but I can't look at him everyday, now! It was bad enough when I was just a student, and he positively _loathed_ me,  and – a-and - I just _can't!_ I'm sorry – I have to go now. I've already spoken with Dumbledore."

"That's it? You're just leaving?"

"You'll be able to take over the D.A.D.A. class until Albus can find a suitable replacement, won't you?" Ginny shrank her trunk down until it could fit easily in her worn leather traveling bag, and she swung it over her shoulder. Her wand was slipped into its familiar place up her sleeve, and she hurried towards the door, only to have Harry catch her arm.

"Ginny, please change your mind. Something can be done – "

But she only patted his hand absently, trying and failing to smile at him reassuringly. "It'll be all right, Harry. Thank you for being my friend. I'm sorry about Christmas, I was looking forward to spending it with you, here, but I'm…needed at the borders again. Those bloody Red-Caps are increasing numbers this season. They've been having trouble with them already. I - I'll owl you." Reaching up on tiptoe, she landed a swift kiss on his cheek and whirled away, nearly running in her haste to exit the castle.

*************************

Severus was walking from the great hall that evening when he caught sight of Ginny racing down the main stairs at breakneck speed.

At first glance he thought that perhaps she was just in a hurry – and indeed, she was – but then he noticed the worn traveling cloak across her shoulders, the heavy satchel slung over her slender shoulder, and realization hit him.

She was running , alright – _away_. Leaving…

"Yeah, she's leaving. Didn't you know? Tendered her resignation to Dumbledore himself this morning." 

He turned his head slightly to see Black standing behind him. "Speaking of - are you ever going to leave?"

"Stuck with this old dog for the holidays, I'm afraid – but you should be happy, eh, Snape? You'll get the Defense Against The Dark Arts job for sure, now that she's gone." Sirius smirked at him, his dark eyes cold and hard, before he moved away.

"Right…happy."

Severus watched a clearly distraught Ginny disappear through an archway into the night beyond, and then found himself following her.

**************************

Ginny was standing in the light snowfall at the edge of the Hogsmeade station platform, lost in absolute heart break and misery when a movement at her side made her glance up.

"Severus?" Her heart leapt in hope.

The tall, dark potions master stood before her, his long black hair, and wide, cloak covered shoulders dusted with snow. However, the look on his cruelly handsome face made her fluttering heart drop to the pit of her stomach with an ear-piercing crack.

"Just what in the hell, may I ask, do you think you are doing?"

Everything inside her instantly curled up like a kicked puppy at the vehemence in his tone. So much for thinking maybe he'd changed his mind about them.

"I'm – I've been asked to head a task-force – "

"Don't bother lying," he bit out, making her drop her eyes. "You're leaving because of me, aren't you? Because of what I said this morning?"

"No! I'm just – needed elsewhere," she murmured lamely.

"Liar."

She looked up again, frowning fiercely. "What do you care? I'll be out of your hair, not trailing along after you anymore – I thought that was what you wanted. Isn't it?"

"What I want, is for you to stop acting like a child and haul your infuriating little arse back up to the school!" he barked at her.

"Why? Why do you want me to stay? Why when it's more than obvious to everyone – including me, now – that you can't stand me?"

"Quit saying stupid things – I can't stand _anyone_, isn't that quite apparent?"

"Oh, of course! Do you always sleep with people you can't stand, Severus?"

"That was – a mistake." He took a small step back from her.

"And that is why I'm leaving! Do you think I can take being around you every day knowing how you feel, knowing how you taste – "

"Stop it – "

"- and knowing you're disgusted by the memory of it?" Ginny heard the train coming, and turned away as if drew up to the platform, warm steam billowing across her legs. "I can't live like that, Severus.," she said over the lapping of the train wheels. "I love you, and I always will – but I can't stand back and watch you hate me for it forever."

"Damn it, Ginny – I don't _hate_ you – "

"Hogsmeade Super Express – train leaves in two minutes! Two minutes before last whistle!" 

Ginny stepped forward resolutely as the doors slid open on the train. She felt tears rolling down her cold cheeks again, and raised her gloved hands to hurriedly swipe them away. A pair of rotund little witches exited, twittered excitedly at the sight of the dark, lean man standing on the platform, and giggled like school girls as they collected their baggage.

Ginny stepped through the doors, onto the train, and though she tried very hard not to, she ended up turning around to face Severus before the doors closed.

"I'll miss you," she told him, giving up any pretense of pride, knowing this would be the last time she saw him. "I – just…take care of yourself, Snape."

She watched his jaw tighten, and his black gloved hands fist at his sides. He seemed as if he might say something, but then he only nodded stiffly, his dark eyes glittering broodingly.

Ginny found herself smiling sadly. "I guess you won that bet Albus was telling me about, after all."

The potions master frowned. "What bet?"

She leaned forward slightly and reached out to lightly touch the back of his hand. Then a piercing whistle sounded in the cold air, and she pulled back as the doors began to slowly slide closed. "I really _didn't_ last the year, did I?"

For the first time since she'd ever met him, a look resembling remorse creased his dark brow – and then the doors snapped firmly shut, and the train began moving.

******************

To Be Continued…

******************

A/N: No, he's not chasing after her, geez…well, he might go after her, but not for the reason you might think…maybe. At any rate, old Sev's not giving in that easily, give him some credit…


	14. 14 Resiliency Of Spirit

14. Resiliency Of Spirit

******************

Disclaimer: The only thing I own is the plot. Scary.

******************

"One guess why they're called 'Red Caps'!" 

Ginny shouted over the raucous noise of the new trainees in the rough wooden building that was the R.C.B.C. [Red Cap Border Control] Headquarters.

The small crowd of young men showed no intentions of listening to her whatsoever. They all looked very comfortable and excited to have been chosen be there, wrapped in their heavy black cloaks and scarves and thick dragon hide gloves. They sat at small round wooden tables, chatting, drinking Butterbeer charmed to stay warm and foaming, faces lit up in the flickering light of lanterns whose flames were slightly tossed by a cold winter draft.

Ginny sighed roughly, from where she was standing up on a low narrow ledge in a corner of the room. She commenced grinding her palm into her aching forehead in impatience, before she unclenched her teeth and snapped, _"Sonorous!"_

_"I SAID, 'ONE GUESS WHY THEY'RE CALLED RED CAPS'!"_

The entire building shook from the sound of her magically amplified voice.

There came the sound of ten mugs of butter beer smashing to the floor, as the trainees jumped at the magically amplified voice, and then there was silence, save for the popping of logs in the vast stone fireplace nearby.

Satisfied she at last had their attention, Ginny ended the charm with an expert, impatient flick of her wand, and tucked it away. She tried to ignore the vicious pounding at her temples, and took a deep breath before speaking.

"Now, since you lot were unwise enough to decide that volunteering for this job would be fun, or adventurous, I have been charged with seeing to it that you know exactly what you're getting into. Now, I know – " she continued sternly, over the loud groans that sounded, " – that most of you are thinking that you didn't come here to learn what you already did in school." She met each man's eye in turn.  "That you think I would assume that you already know what you need to since you couldn't possibly be stupid enough to volunteer for this job if you didn't. But, I've long since learned to assume nothing, and I'm going to go over the basics again."

"Aw, bugger this - who let the 'girl' in here?" came a loud, complaining voice from the back of the room.

Several low, male voices joined in, sounding resentful.

Ginny rolled her eyes, and clenched her jaw again. There was always _one_ fouling up the mix!

"My name," she said loudly, but careful to keep her voice even, "is Professor Ginny Weasley."

"Professor?" came the rough voice again, snickering. "Shouldn't you be at Hogwarts, or somethin', teachin' the kiddies?"

Laughs came from around the room, and Ginny felt her temper soar through the roof, even as she felt a painful twinge in her chest at the mention of Hogwarts. Severus – a flash of shadowed dark eyes surfaced stubbornly from her memory, and she gave her head a sharp shake, determined to return her attention to the crowd.

Oh, right. The inevitable heckler. Ugh…new guys…

"What's your name, sir?" she asked with deliberate boredom, eyes scanning the back.

"Clive McCrindle," responded the voice challengingly.

"Uh-huh." Ginny paced her makeshift stage, twirling her wand thoughtfully. "Well, Mr. Muckriddle – "

"_McCrindle_ – "

"- yes. Let's see just what you _do_ know about Red Caps, shall we?" She looked out of the corner of her eye, and paused in her step.

"Just _why_ are they called Red Caps?"

"Because they wear red caps," the man answered condescendingly. "Obvious, ain't it?"

"Quite." Ginny smiled tightly. "And whom do they attack?"

"Lone travelers."

Ginny nodded, pacing again. "_Why_ do they attack?"

"Why don't you ask me some real questions, _Professor_?"

Stopping in her tracks, Ginny straightened her spine, and felt a small, annoyed snarl curl her lips.

"Eh, you lot have gone and done it now," she heard one of last years return volunteers mutter wincingly from nearby.

"In answer to your responses, _McCrankle – "_

"That's _McCrindle_ – "

"- Of _course_ it is - Red Caps are indeed called _Red Caps_ because they wear…red caps. Secondly, yes, they do attack solitary travelers. You are to be commended on your _extensive_ knowledge, sir." She narrowed her eyes, allowing herself a slightly frosty smile.

"But grant this 'girl' a moment, if you please. Allow me to expound on your doubtless _brilliant_ and _endless_ expertise."

A snicker rose from the crowd.

"Have you ever 'seen' a Red Cap, McCriggle?" she asked him thoughtfully.

"It's _McCrindle –_ and no, I don't reckon I have."

"Ah. Well, permit me to describe them for you. Red Cap's – also called 'bloody caps', or 'red combs'- are evil creatures of the goblin species. Red Cap's have long, gray hair, shiny red eyes, and sharp, protruding teeth. Though they are goblins, they do _not_, unfortunately, have a goblins restrictive height, which does tend to make them more dangerous." Ginny paused to rub the back of her neck, before she went on. "They haunt the ruins of castles, forests, and the grounds of places where bloody battles have occurred. It's distinctive 'red hat' – listen closely, here, McCrinkle – gains it's color from being soaked…in _blood._"

There came a distinctive, mass 'gulp' from the suddenly closely attentive crowd.

Mr. McCrindle, Ginny noticed with an almost sadistic glee, did _not _choose to comment.

"Red Cap's usually carry long walking sticks, tipped with a metal spike. Its usefulness to the Red Cap should be fairly evident. After all, the blood of a fresh victim is just what's needed - to brighten the color of his crimson cap…and what easier way to get said victim, than to stalk the solitary, unwitting - and usually Muggle - travelers and tourists who move through these parts?"

Ginny put her hands her hips after a few more minutes of pointing out the more 'interesting' qualities of the goblins. "Now – are there any questions?"

The crowd stared back at her, pale-faced and wide eyed, Butterbeer forgotten. Three men in the back – including Clive McCrindle – stood up, knocking over chairs in their haste to leave. They made a loud racket that taunted Ginny's temples as they left, and her patience grew much shorter. An unwelcome blast of icy winter air signaled the opening and closing of the main doors at the back of the room.

"All right, you lot," Ginny announced, her tone cool, "that's three of your number gone. Anyone else who wants to leave, kindly make yourselves scarce – the rest of us have got work to do." She swept her eyes over the room, and then nodded after a moment. No one moved. "All right then." 

Ginny made a motion with her wand, and a large, glittering gold map formed itself in the air before her.

"This – " she began tiredly, saying things that she'd said fifty times before, "is a map of the perimeters. The borders are outlined in green, the largest knots of Red Cap grouping's in – what else – red…"

"I wish I could tell you Red Cap's are the only danger you'll face on your nightly patrols, but, unhappily, this isn't so. We have, over the past few years, run into some Forest trolls, and even, on the outlying coastal areas, a few Kappas -  and _yes_, before anyone asks, the rumors about them being especially fond of human liver are completely true. You'll all be briefed on how to handle these water spirits should you come across them. Now, moving on…"

**************************

Paper work, paper work, paper work.

_Boring._

The numbers on the parchment before her swam together slightly, and Ginny shoved the papers aside with a frustrated sigh. There was nothing to be done about it tonight. She was too distracted, too restless, to work on the boring statistic reports for the Ministry.

She missed Severus. She missed seeing him every day, missed hearing the cool sarcasm in his clever, drawling voice, the quick way he observed the happenings in the school, the way his dark, sharp eyes glinted through the fall of his hair at her…mostly she missed the feel of him, and that funny, wholly uncharacteristic, sunshiny scent his robes had carried.

Ginny waited for tears to rise in her tired, scratchy eyes, but for once, none came, and she was glad. She didn't have the time, or energy, to waste mourning what might have been – what _she_ wished might have been, anyway.

She pushed back from her desk, and rose from her chair, pulling on her heavy black patrol cloak, gloves and scarf, and stashed her wand up her sleeve just as Corson Luddley, a young man of about her age, and one of the new volunteers, came crashing through the roughhewn double wooden doors into her tiny office, looking bloodied and terrified.

"What happened?" She asked, automatically. Luddley had been part of a two man team, sent out to patrol one of the more quiet forest areas, to the south. The new lads were always given the easiest, most boring jobs until they were accustomed to the work, and they had been trained to 'never' separate from their partner, for any reason, unless – 

"- bloody Red Cap's – had to be twenty of them, at least! We never knew what hit us – Mitchell's dead, so is Fenten! When they first attacked, we sent up red sparks, and that brought the other three teams nearby – they got Fenten as soon as he and Rinkalby arrived - "

"Twenty? They don't attack in numbers," Ginny muttered under her breath, trying not to feel panicked. "Are you sure they're dead, Mitchell and Fenton?"

Luddley nodded, still gulping in breaths, blood still dripping from long gouges on his cheek. His light blue eyes looked tortured. "I saw it," he swallowed, voice cracking, looking pale and sick. "Merlin, they just tore 'em to – "

"Get in touch with the other eight teams – tell them all to get to the southern point, _quickly_, and I mean _yesterday_, understand?"

"Yes ma'am. You – you aren't going out there by yourself, are you?" He swept a shaky hand along his cut and bleeding lower lip.

She gave him a small, stressed smile. "We go where we're needed, remember? Now get out of here - hurry up! And don't forget to take a medic with you!"

Ginny waited until he exited the office, dissaparating with a loud, frenzied pop, before she closed her eyes, took a deep, steadying breath, and did the same.

**************************

Northern Europe. 

There wasn't much Ginny could say about it – except that the part where she was, was frigging cold – and very remote. If the place hadn't been populated, there'd have been no reason for her to be there at all. But it was, and it was her job was to keep those villagers and overly adventurous tourists unwise enough to stray into the dark, safe.

Ginny paused in her trek along the main road – which in reality was a rough dirt road leading several miles north into the mountains, and then southwest, back down through the small, hidden Wizarding village where the R.C.B.C. headquarters' were located. That road also led the way home…

Just thinking of Hogwarts, and what she'd left behind, made her chest ache again.

But she couldn't think about that, couldn't think about _him_, now. Not if she wanted to get through this night alive.

She left the main road, entering the forest, keeping her guard up, and her eyes open for any of sign of life – but there was only the dark chill of the night and the deep drifts of snow to be seen.

A few minutes later she came upon a grisly sight, and had to turn away, taking great gasps of air to keep from retching on the spot. She couldn't tell if the bloody, torn remains were human or some other creature, but she didn't linger on it. It took her several moments to gain control over her rattled nerves.

Raising her wand, she finally sent up some gold sparks into the night sky; the signal would let the others know to approach the area with extreme caution.

The forest fell away further on, into a little valley. Ginny moved on, wand pointed before her, but she still couldn't detect any movement anywhere. It wasn't a good sign, for her – and especially the three teams Luddley had been speaking of. If they'd still been alive, there would have been something – 

When she hit the bottom of the valley, she found a familiar, small circular clearing, with the ruin of an ancient stone, Anglo-Saxon watch tower occupying it. She circled the area carefully, before moving in to examine the tracks she saw in the snow, which probably wasn't the wisest decision she'd ever made – for when she looked up again, two dozen pairs of blazing red eyes stared back at her from the trees surrounding the moonlit clearing.

**********************

Severus Snape arrived at the R.C.B.C. headquarters to find it in a chaotic uproar.

He'd put off the visit for as long as he could, but there'd been little choice in coming. The new treatment he'd given Ginny for her recurring illness had been enough to get her through precisely three months. After she'd left the school, he'd been faced with the unwelcome fact that he'd have to send a new supply to her through the post, which he trusted about as much as he did anything else, or he could apparate, and bring it to her himself, which, he was afraid, was really just an excuse to perhaps lay eyes on her again, to see if she was all right.

The past weeks had been almost excruciatingly empty for him. Going back to life as it had been before Ginny had arrived to teach at Hogwarts…well, it had been an extremely rough adjustment – especially for the majority of his students, who'd received the brunt of his angry, confused emotions unto the point where they'd taken to cowering in corridors as he passed.

He'd finally decided that he'd take her the bloody potion, leave her notes on how to prepare the damned stuff herself, and happily return to Hogwarts to get on with his miserable, lone existence, just as he always had.

When he arrived in the tiny village of  Futhark, and was directed to the place where Ginny was residing, he was appalled at the conditions. Rough, drafty, ramshackle wooden structures made up the buildings of the R.C.B.C., and the interiors, while tidy and serviceable enough, looked anything but warm and welcoming.

Severus had been barely following the stories about the worry of the Ministry, that they might be unable to contain the steadily rising numbers of the violent Red Caps in the north. They had all been back page stories, nothing outstandingly important – and now, he'd found out Ginny had been in the midst of it.

The few wizards he found dashing around the offices looked wild eyed and over stressed, and he stood near the entrance for several, impatient minutes, before he reached out and grabbed one of the passing men by the nape of his neck, questioning him with an intolerant snarl.

"You! Virginia Weasley – where might I find her?"

The young, skinny wizard gulped and stared up at him, clearly trying to get his overworked mind to process the question. "W-Weasley? Professor Weasley?"

"Where – is – she?" Severus gave him a slight shake, narrowing his eyes. "Tell me!"

"She's- she's dead, sir! I'm sorry - she was killed in the Red Cap uprising two nights ago. I'm very sorry, sir, but I have to go, I have to send off these reports – "

When the young man finally managed to detach himself from his sudden death grip and go scurrying off towards the area where the post owl's were arriving in mad numbers, Severus, his glistening black eyes staring blankly at the floor, barely noticed.

**********************

The first knock on the chamber door went unanswered, as did the one after that, and the one after that.

Severus sat sprawled in his chair before the fire, staring blindly at the sadly ratty notebook he'd unearthed from the depths of one of his filing cabinets

He _had_ been lying when he'd told Ginny he hadn't kept her 'diary'. He'd never really been sure just 'why', but kept it he had, after rescuing it from the rubbish as if it were some kind of treasure. He'd hated himself for doing it, and he'd tried to prove to himself he didn't care about it at all by tossing it into the bottom drawer of a locked cabinet and walking away from it.

Now it was all he had left of her, and there he sat, re-reading it, feeling utterly pathetic.

_" – weird, the things you notice about a person when you watch them from day to day – "_

His eyes skimmed the battered, yellowed pages, pausing to read again.

_"- that feeling you get when you see something desperately want, and know intuitively that you'll _never_ get it?"_

Ha. He knew, all right…

Another annoyingly insistent knock sounded, and he sank lower in his chair, trying to ignore the noise at the same time as he reached for the bottle resting on the floor beside him. He tried – unsuccessfully – to remember how many he'd already gone through, and then gave a careless shrug. The damned knock came _again_, then.

"Go away, before I curse you," he snarled beneath his breath, raising the bottle and taking a long drink.

That was one thing he couldn't understand about the people in this bloody school – he went to class, every day, without fail, taught the students, attended the required meetings and dinners he did his job to the best of his ability, and all he asked for in return was to be left the hell alone.

When the knock came again, harder this time, Severus threw the now empty bottle in his hand into the fireplace with a shattering crash, and stood up, suddenly in a violent temper. 

He stalked to the door, uncaring that he wore only a white shirt, unbuttoned halfway down the front, and his one – and only – pair of black denim jeans, that usually never saw the light of day. His boots thudded loudly against the stone floor as he walked, and an angry, black expression showed on his face as he unlocked the door, and tore it open, nearly ripping it from it's hinges. _"What the bloody hell do you want?!" _he roared to the people standing outside.

"Oh, that's a fine way to greet an old friend," Sirius Black said, scowling at him. A tired looking, black cloaked Harry Potter stood at his side.

"Jesus, Sev – you look like someone beat you _all_ to shit." Black leaned in slightly and sniffed. "Whew – smell like it, too. What have you been drinking?"

Severus nearly ground his teeth to bits. "I'll_ kill _you, Black, I swear to god – " taking a deep breath, he ran a hand over his face, and closed his bloodshot eyes momentarily. "What the hell is it?" he asked in a quieter voice that shook with the effort of belaying his temper. "Isn't it Saturday? What the bloody are 'you' two doing back here? Correct me if I am mistaken, but I thought we'd gotten rid of you at last."

"That's an awful lot of 'hell's'," Sirius said, looking as if he were keeping count. "You must be really pissed, to be so inarticulate – "

"Sirius," Potter elbowed his Godfather sharply, his voice low and urgent. He looked up at Severus and said flatly, "They've found Ginny."

A physical blow couldn't have hurt any worse.

Severus felt the liquor roil in his stomach, and turned away from the door to hide his expression.

Found Ginny…

Found her body, finally, is what he really meant.

"I was…sorry to hear of her unfortunate death," he heard himself say with cold deliberation, "but I fail to see why you thought to inform me, personally. I had no claim on her."

"I'm going put off beating the bloody crap out of you, on the grounds that you're sloshed, and probably don't even know what the hell you're saying," Potter returned in a low, strained voice. "We came to tell you – "

Severus drowned out the rest of his words as his mind became conveniently hazy.

He groaned, put his face into his hands, remembering the warmth in Ginny's brown eyes, and that damned constant light of  hope. He recalled the healthy pink color in her lightly freckled cheeks, and the cheeky grins she gave him whenever she passed him in the halls, no matter how dark or threatening the scowl he sent in return…

He kicked the door shut, suddenly, and fell against it, ignoring the protests of the two outside, unable to hear anything but his own labored breathing.

It had been three weeks, nearly, since she'd been missing, three weeks since she'd been seen, dead, being dragged away by the Red Cap's during the uprising – he didn't have to imagine what had happened to her between then and when they'd found her. He'd seen Red Cap victim's before, but they'd been nameless, faceless, then - 

All he could think of suddenly was the pain she must have endured, the terror…but, no. Ginny wouldn't have given up that easily, stubborn as she was. She would have fought until the last – although, as defeated as she'd looked the last time he'd seen her, and seeing as she 'd been foolish enough to practically hand herself over to the bloody thirsty creatures, he had the sudden thought that just perhaps, she'd done it on purpose…

Pissed as he was, and as guilty as he was feeling, he could almost believe that her death 'had' been entirely his fault. Ginny had only taken to the job because of him, because he'd been so cruel to her that she couldn't even stand to be around him anymore.

Severus felt his heart gave a painful thud, and his stomach lurched threateningly. He felt dangerously lightheaded, suddenly, and he grabbed for anything to steady himself, to use as a handhold, but then his vision started going black around the edges, and slid down the door…

*******************

As it happened, Ginny wasn't really _dead_ at all. 

However, laying as she was in the Intensive Care ward of St. Mungo's hospital, dangerously thin and weak, and pale as a ghost, she probably could have passed for being dead.

"I certainly feel half-dead, at least," she thought to herself as she barely managed to hold a hand mirror up to see herself.

"Oh, take it _away_, Mum," she rasped after a long moment of staring at the hideous reflection. She was ugly. Every part of her. "Here, take it," she croaked, and pushed the mirror back at her hovering mother, biting back tears. Even her voice was ugly, now.

"It'll get better, dearest," Mrs. Weasley told her gently. "We'll take it slow, just as the doctor says, and use the potions – "

_Potions._

_Severus._ Oh, god, what would he think of her if he ever saw her like this? 

Panic rose, and her stomach twisted with sudden despair.

"Just leave me alone for a little, Mum," she said softly, raising a hand to the partially healed cut on her throat as she strained her voice just a bit too much. "I'm sorry. I-I'm just very tired," she lied. She _was_ tired, but there was no way she could hope to sleep.

"A-all right, darling. I'll come back later, then." Mrs. Weasley sniffled slightly, and bent to kiss her forehead. "Rest well."

Ginny waited until her mother had left before she again lifted her hands – but she stared at them, instead of using them to feel the rough scars on her face. There were deep, healing red cuts all over them, from having used them to defend her head and body from the pike staff's wielded by the goblins.

She couldn't close her eyes without seeing those nightmarish faces standing over her, bloody, dripping fangs grinning manically as they stained their ratty red caps with rusty cups full of blood drained from her own, gashed throat - 

Giving a painful shudder, she dropped her hands, and stared at the ceiling, knowing she should be happy and relieved she was home at last, that she was alive, and had survived the attack, and the ensuing fevers that had rendered her helpless in the long days that had followed. 

Her earliest memory, after the attack, had been coming to, alone, seeing the sun rising in the distance, making the sky light enough for her to be able to see her own blood staining the pristine white snow surrounding her…and then it had been the inside of some poor, mute, muggle hermit's cabin.

It was hard to remember anything after that, as she'd been so completely out of it for so long. She didn't even know how the hermit had managed to keep her alive as long as he did, before believing her condition to be stable enough to make the trek to the nearest muggle village and get help.

From the cabin she'd gone to a muggle hospital, where she'd been poked and prodded, and actually 'stitched' up – it had been a horrible experience. To make things even worse, her vocal cords had been slightly damaged by the cut on her throat, and her hands so damaged, she couldn't even let them know who the hell she was, much less who to get in contact with, or how – but at last had come the day where she'd managed to scribble out the 'telephone' number Harry had always insisted she memorize in case of emergencies.

She'd been taken out of the cold, impersonal muggle hospital, and swiftly settled into St. Mungo's, back home in London, all thanks to Harry.

She was back among family and friends, wounds healing, feeling warmth for the first time in weeks – and she wasn't even really sure she was happy to be alive, It all seemed a little pointless now, after first having worked so hard to achieve her goal, and then losing it.

Ginny dropped her eyes from the ceiling, trying to ignore the burning tingle of the healing salve spread across her scars and wounds. She couldn't help but wonder if 'he' even knew what had happened. She kind of hoped he didn't, because she didn't ever want him to see her like this, not that she really thought he'd be interested enough to bother to try.

**********************

"How thick can you get? Alcohol poisoning – ugly business," Poppy Pomfrey bustled around Severus's bed in the hospital wing, and he scowled up at her from beneath growing piles of blankets spread over him.

"Poppy, I am telling you, for the last bloody time, I am fine. I have to get up – I have things to do – "

"You aren't going anywhere for a day or two, Severus Snape, so don't even think about it. You're still ill, anyone can see that. Ruddy irresponsible, that, drinking so much – ought to consider a twelve-step programme, you know – "

"Pomfrey – " he growled, making a frustrated, weak movement, as if to slide out from beneath the sheets.

"Try it and I'll hex your toes off," she warned mildly. She paused in smoothing the coverlets of another bed beside his. "Why are you in such an state, trying to get out of here anyway? If it's the students you're worried about, I plan on putting a privacy curtain around you – "

"I'm not concerned about the little rug rats – will you kindly stop coddling me already?" He frowned and batted her hand away as she reached up yet again to tug at the sheets beneath his chin. "Contrary to what the lot of you may think hereabouts, I was not _hatched_, I did have a mother once, a very charming woman, who was terribly overprotective, and you're reminding me disturbingly of her, _so push off!"_

Poppy only laughed lightly, apparently unoffended by his sour manner, and turned away, leaving him stewing in his bed, alone with his thoughts.

Ginny was alive. Not well, but alive – and she was in London.

Severus had no intention of staying in bed, as Poppy Pomfrey had insisted. He wanted to go and see Ginny for himself, just to assure that annoying part of him that seemed so determined to care for her, that she was indeed, all right.

His head started a familiar pounding at his temples, and he thought fleetingly of one of the bottles of Ogden's he had stored in his rooms, before his stomach cramped in protest at the mere idea, and he hastily discarded it. He was still suffering from the after-effects of alcohol poisoning, and at that moment, had no true desire to ever see another drop of the stuff again, no matter how badly his head grieved him.

It had to be the stupidest thing he'd ever done, drinking himself into a stupor like that.

Well, no, the stupidest thing he'd ever done was to let Ginny Weasley get under his skin as he had. An infuriating, annoyingly upbeat little scrap of a girl with frizzy red-orange hair and a propensity for making him feel things he'd never even thought he'd be able to feel, before.

As soon as he was sure Pomfrey had left the hospital wing, he sat up, ignoring the vicious pain in his head at the sudden motion, and found his robes and wand.

*******************

The room was in near darkness when he arrived, having apparated from the woods outside of the castle. He'd been shown in by one of the head nurses, and thankfully none of her family had been present.

Severus stood just inside the door as the white-robed nurse left, feeling weak and ill from the trip, and actually nervous about seeing Ginny again.

"Harry? Is that you?"

His breath caught at the sound of her voice, coming from beyond a privacy curtain around the bed. It was almost impossible to hear, it was so low and raspy – it barely sounded like Ginny at all.

"Harry, I told you before, I'm not…going back…to Hogwarts. I don't…care if the p-position hasn't…been filled, yet. I won't go back…like this." She coughed feebly, before taking a deep breath.

Severus paused in reaching for the curtain, his black gloved hand curling into a fist. The urge to go to her, and reach out and take her in his arms was so strong he was actually stepping forward when she spoke again, her tone even flatter than before.

"I don't care what you say. The students won't listen to me anymore…don't you understand? They'll…be too busy…staring at my scars to bother listening. You remember Moody…everyone was scared of him. I don't want it…to be like that. And Severus…I couldn't stand for him to see me…this way. Don't…want to be a ugly reminder…"

He swallowed, hearing her silent tears, unsure as to what to do next. She sounded as if she was in so much pain, and it hurt him to hear the hopelessness in her voice…she sounded as if she were slowly giving up, on him, on everything.

"Harry?" her whisper turned uncertain.

Severus abruptly straightened his back, and hardened his features. No. It wasn't going to end this way for her. He wasn't going to let her give up, wasn't going to let her go weak.

He pulled his gloves off, and folded them in his hand, slapping them against the side of his leg as he clenched his jaw and reached out to yank the curtain aside.

Her ragged gasp when she saw him standing there, in the fading dusk coming through the window, made him falter slightly.

She made an odd whimpering sound, and turned her face away from him, letting her hair fall over it to hide it. Her hands, which were heavily scarred, fluttered for a moment before they settled, palms down, on top of the coverlet she was under.

"Ginny." The name escaped his lips with an emotion he hadn't wanted to show.

She kept her head turned away from him, though her hands twisted into the blankets over her lap at the sound of his voice.

"W-what are you doing here?" she asked after a long minute, her voice more timid then he'd ever heard it. "You shouldn't be here, I didn't want you to see this – "

"Why not?" he snapped, feeling a dark frown pull at his brow. "You little fool, sitting here, feeling sorry for yourself. You've been through scars before, Ginny. Scars fade. Stop being so bloody selfish and vain, and maybe you'll begin to recover – "

"Selfish? Vain?" Ginny jerked her head round to look up at him again, flinging her hair out of her face. "It's selfish of me to try and spare you this?" she lifted her small, heart-shaped face into the dying sunlight, and glared at him.

Severus steeled himself against the need to go to her and take her in his arms. The pain she'd suffered, the sorrow she felt, was there in her soft brown eyes – when he looked at her, he could barely see the angry, scarlet slashes arrowing down either side of her freckled cheeks, or the thin, pale pink of the healed scar running from the right side of her upper lip, and down beyond her lower, almost to her little, pointed chin.

"You were incredibly stupid, leaving like you did." He finally said cruelly. "You never should have gone off like that. This never would have happened if you hadn't."

She stared at him, disbelieving. "I'm feeling much better, thanks, I appreciate your concern for my well being!" she snapped back at him, her rough voice laced with heavy sarcasm.

Severus barely kept from smiling in grim satisfaction. There it was, the fire he'd seen in her before – she'd need it, to regain her confidence.

"I always knew you weren't cut out for this sort of work, Weasley," he pressed, allowing a slight sneer to curl his lips as he began pacing thoughtfully before her bed. "Too small, too fragile, too slow – that's the real reason you left Hogwarts, wasn't it? It wasn't because of me, it was because you weren't sure you could handle the job anymore, wasn't it? Prancing off to hide in the wilds seemed a lot easier than teaching, didn't it?"

"I hate you." 

Severus paused, but only sneered at her, though his throat went tight at the quiet fury of her words.

"Took you long enough to figure out I'm not the 'lovable' type," he drawled nastily, past his inner despair. He resumed his pacing. It would be easier to continue saying what he must if he didn't have to look her directly in the eyes.

"Really? Well, I have to say Im surprised to see 'you' here, Severus – how long did it take you to crawl out of the bottom of that whiskey bottle in your bedroom?" she returned just as meanly. "I suppose I ought to be flattered!"

Stung, Severus lifted his chin, using his disdain to hide the fact that she'd hit a sore spot. 

"Though this is proving to be a most enlightening conversation, _Professor_, I'm afraid I needs must return to Hogwarts – some of us have jobs to return to in the morning."

His conscience stabbed at him as her face paled, and then he watched Ginny's eyes grow determined. Here was the response he'd sought.

"You may take your leave with my blessings, Severus – and I expect you'll be seeing me soon enough."

Refraining from laughing in triumph, Severus nodded shortly, and then, almost as an afterthought, he stepped forward and produced a small bottle, with he tossed nonchalantly into her lap. "Your treatment – a stronger infusion, you'll be happy to know. You need only take it once a week. I…hope your recovery is rapid. Perhaps that remarkable resiliency of spirit you seem to be possessed of will come in handy."

"Your confidence in me is positively heart-warming." Ginny's hand slowly curled around the vial he'd dropped. "I suppose I should thank you for this."

He snorted. "Thanks are unnecessary. Potter requested that I bring it round," he lied.

Ginny made a great show of carefully placing the bottle on the nightstand beside the bed, but he could see her hand tremble in reaction to his discourteous words.

Severus swung around, cloak swirling as he took his leave before he succumbed to the temptation to touch her.

"I'm sorry, Severus."

He stopped at the edge of the curtain, and then busied himself pulling his gloves back on. "Sorry for what?" he asked in a carefully bored, offhand way.

"I don't really hate you. I didn't…I didn't mean it."

"I know," he said very quietly, and then left, even though he wanted more than anything suddenly, just to stay.

**********************

To Be Continued…

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A/N:  Yeah, yeah. It's been a while. Thanks for the 'get off your ass and write' reviews, guys. I'm still _on_ my ass, somewhat, but that's not the point. I'll try to be more consistent with the updates in the future. Things will be a lot more G/S next chapter, and that one will probably be the last in this fic. Maybe. I'm working on it. : D Thanks for reading. 

– Key

*Info on Red Cap's, Kappa's, from: _The Sorcerer's Companion: A guide to the Magical World of Harry Potter, by Allan Zola Kronzck & Elizabeth Kronzck_


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